abstract: An abbreviated transcription of a document that includes the date of the record and every name in it; it may also provide relationships of the people mentioned.
administrator de bonis non: Administrator of any goods of a deceased person not already distributed by the original administrator or executor.
admixture: Ancestry that originates from more than one ethnic group.
ad valorem tax: A tax imposed on the value of the property; contrasted to per capita tax.
administration de bonis non cum testament annexo: Administration granted by the court when the executor of a will has died, leaving a portion of the estate not administered.
Ahnentafel: German for “ancestor table,” this system of pedigree chart numbering gives each ancestor a number. Fathers are even numbers; mothers, odd. Double the child’s number to get the father’s (if you’re 1, your father is 2). Add one to the father’s number to get the mother’s (your mother is 3).
aliquot parts: In the rectangular survey system, a description for a subdivision of a section of land using directions and fractions to indicate the land’s location: W1⁄2 SE1⁄4 represents the west half of the southeast quarter of a township.
allele result: Also called a marker value, the numeric value assigned to a genetic marker.
ancestors: Relatives you descend from directly, including parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on.
attachment: The act or process of taking, apprehending, or seizing persons or property usually for the purpose of securing satisfaction of a debt or to guarantee appearance in court.
autosomal DNA: Genetic material inherited equally from mother and father, representing all your DNA except what’s in the mitochondria and on the X and Y chromosomes. Autosomal DNA is the most widely used type of DNA in genealogy, as it can estimate ethnic origins and establish genetic relationships between test-takers.
banns (or marriage banns): Church documents publicly stating a couple’s intent to marry.
block number: A one-, two-, or three-digit number that describes a block (or piece) of land within a township.
bond: A written, signed, and witnessed agreement requiring someone to pay a specified amount of money by a given date.
bounty land: Land granted by the Colonial and federal governments as a reward for military service; bounty land warrants—documents granting the right to the land—were assigned to soldiers, their heirs, or other individuals.
Bureau of Land Management General Land Office (GLO): The US government office historically in charge of dispersing public land. Usually, several branch land offices existed for each state; its website <www.glorecords.blm.gov> has a database with digitized federal land patents.
cemetery records: Records of those buried, as well as maps of grave sites; usually kept by cemetery caretakers.
census: An official count of the population in a given area; other details, such as names, ages, citizenship status and ethnic background of individuals, may be recorded. The US government has been collecting census data every ten years since in 1790. Many states have conducted their own censuses as well.
certified copy: A record copy made and attested to by custodians of the original who are authorized to give copies.
chain of titles: The record of successive conveyances affecting a particular parcel of land, arranged consecutively from the government or previous owner down to present owner.
chattel mortgage: A mortgage that involves personal, rather than real, estate.
chromosome: A threadlike strand of DNA that carries genes and transmits hereditary information. Humans have forty-six chromosomes, organized into twenty-three pairs.
citation: The formatted information about a genealogical source that connects that source to each piece of family information it provides.
cluster genealogy: Studying your ancestor as part of a group of relatives, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and associates; this approach can help you learn details you might miss by looking only at records of an individual ancestor.
collateral relative: Any kin who aren’t in your direct line, such as siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
confidence range or confidence interval: Measure of how likely a result is to be accurate. A DNA results report shows the most likely ancestry percentages (for a biogeographic test) or date an MRCA lived (for a Y-DNA test), as well as a confidence range showing other possible results.
court of chancery: A court administering equity proceedings.
court of common pleas: The court where civil and criminal cases are begun. Most of these have been abolished, with jurisdiction transferred to district or circuit courts.
credit patent: A document transferring land to be paid for in installments over a four-year period. A delinquent payment or nonpayment of the full balance resulted in forfeiture.
curtesy: The estate to which a man was entitled by the death of his wife that she had seized in either fee simple or entail, provided they have children born alive and capable of inheriting, i.e., not mentally incapable of managing financial affairs. It is a freehold estate for the term of his natural life. (In some states there was no requirement that issue be born of the union.)
declaration of intention: An alien’s sworn statement that he or she wants to become a US citizen, also called “first papers”; these court records list details such as name, age, occupation, birthplace, and last foreign residence.
deed: A document transferring ownership and title of property; unlike a patent, a deed records the sale of property from one private individual to another.
deed of gift: The conveyance of land without consideration (payment).
deposition: The testimony of a witness taken under oath from a distance, rather than in open court. A written transcript is made and becomes part of a permanent court record.
derivative record: A document that has been copied, digitized, summarized, abstracted, extracted, indexed, transcribed, or otherwise created from another source. Try to track derivative records to the original. When you must use a derivative source, be sure to cite appropriately.
descendant chart: A report displaying names and information on a person’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.
descendants: An ancestor’s offspring—children, grandchildren, and every new generation in the direct line.
direct evidence: Information in a source that directly answers a research question. For example, if the research question was “What was his birth date?” then direct evidence of that answer would be a record stating the birth date as 12 May 1835.
DNA: The molecule that contains genetic code. Short for deoxyribonucleic acid; genetic genealogy tests analyze various types of DNA, especially Y-DNA, mtDNA, or autosomal DNA.
documentation: The process of citing sources of the family history information you’ve gathered, making it easier to keep track of the research you’ve completed and allowing others to verify your findings.
dower: A provision by law that entitles the widow to a life-estate in the lands and tenements of her husband at his death if he dies intestate, or if she dissents from his will. Dower has been abolished in the majority of states. Although it was traditionally one third of the estate, there was wide variation among colonies and states.
dowry: The property that a woman brings to her husband at their marriage; sometimes referred to as ‘‘her portion.’’
entail: To settle or limit the succession to real property.
entail, estate: An estate of inheritance that, instead of descending to the heirs in general, goes to the heirs of the owner’s body (meaning his lawful issue), and through them to his grandchildren in a direct line. There are several variations of estate entail.
enumeration districts: Divisions of an area used to make census taking more efficient and accurate. For large cities, the boundaries of enumeration districts often match those of wards or precincts.
extract: A quoted passage taken from a source. Unlike an abstract, an extract isn’t edited down to the bare essentials. An extract doesn’t necessarily include key information from the entire document, just one passage.
family group record (or sheet): A worksheet that succinctly summarizes your information on a couple and their children; includes names; dates and places of birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial; and source citations.
Family History Center: A local branch of the FamilySearch library network. Each location contains a variety of digital and microfilmed records.
Family History Library (FHL): The world’s largest collection of genealogical information, founded in 1894 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS church). The main branch is in Salt Lake City, Utah. The FamilySearch website <www.familysearch.org> contains genealogical databases and the library’s catalog.
fee simple: Refers to an estate granted to a man and his heirs with no limitations or conditions.
five-generation ancestor chart: A family tree chart with five columns reading from left to right; this lists vital information for a person (in column 1) and his or her parents (column 2), grandparents (column 3), and so on.
freeman: An enfranchised citizen. The right to be called a freeman was a political right dependent upon specific qualifications imposed by law. A freeman was not a freed slave, nor a released indentured servant.
freedman: A person released from slavery.
friendly suit or amicable action: An action brought and carried out by the mutual consent and arrangement of the parties to obtain judgment of court on a doubtful question of law, the facts being usually settled by agreements.
gazetteer: A geographical dictionary; a book giving names and descriptions of places, usually in alphabetical order.
GEDCOM: GEnealogy Data COMmunications, the universal file format for genealogy databases that allows users of different software programs to share family tree data with others.
gene: A hereditary unit consisting of a sequence of DNA that occupies a specific location on a chromosome and determines a particular characteristic in an organism.
Genealogical Proof Standard: A professional standard for credible research set by the Board for Certification of Genealogists. Its elements include a reasonably exhaustive search for answers, complete and accurate source citations, analysis and correlation of evidence, resolution of conflicting evidence, and a well-reasoned and well-written conclusion.
genealogy: The study of your family’s history; the process of tracing your ancestors back through time.
genetic marker: A specific location on a chromosome where the basic genetic units exist in a variable number of repeated copies. DNA tests analyze a collection of genetic markers.
genotype: The compilation of multiple genetic markers; the unique genetic identifier for any given individual.
haplogroup: An identification of the genetic group your ancient ancestors (10,000 to 60,000 years ago) belonged to, sometimes referred to as a branch of the world’s family tree.
haplotype: Collectively, the marker values on your Y-DNA or mtDNA test results.
home source: Sources of any kind you find from family members and in your or a relative’s home. Though these sources may be fragmented or undocumented, they are more likely to be relevant to your family and not to others of the same name (a problem common to finding records outside the family).
homestead: A home on land obtained from the US government; the homesteader agreed to live on the land and make improvements, such as adding buildings and clearing fields.
Homestead Act of 1862: A law allowing people to settle up to 160 acres of public land if they satisfied certain requirements; the land was free, but the settler paid a filing fee.
HVR (hypervariable region): Sections of mtDNA (such as HV1 and HV2) used to determine your haplogroup.
index: In genealogical terms, a list of names taken from a set of records. For example, a census index may list the names of people recorded in a given area in the 1870, 1880, 1900, or another census. Indexes are often used in online databases and are also available in books and on CD, microfilm, and microfiche. They usually provide source information for the source records.
Indian depredations: Claims made to the government by whites whose property had been destroyed by the Indians, and vice versa.
indirect evidence: Information that helps answer a research question but doesn’t answer it in full. Let’s say you’re trying to identify Sadie’s parents. One document links Sadie to her twin sister Alice and another gives Alice’s parents’ names. These two indirect pieces of evidence combine to answer your question.
informant: The person providing the information recorded in a document, as in a birth record. The reliability of the informant affects the accuracy of the evidence.
inmate: One who rented his land from a landlord.
International Genealogical Index (IGI): A pedigree database on FamilySearch.org; contains roughly 250 million names either submitted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or extracted from records the church has microfilmed.
intestate: Describes a person who died without a will.
Julian calendar: The calendar used from 46 BC to 1582, named for Julius Caesar; it’s often referred to as the “Old Style” calendar and was replaced by the Gregorian calendar.
kindred: Blood relatives.
land claim: A settler’s application to receive public land.
land-entry case file: A file created when a person claimed land under an act of Congress, such as the Homestead Act of 1862; the person first filled out an application at the local General Land Office. The file might contain marriage, immigration, or other documents. Files are available from the National Archives and Records Administration.
land grant: Public land given to an individual by the government, usually as a reward for military service.
land patent: A document transferring land ownership from the federal government to an individual.
legacy: Property or money bequeathed to someone in a will.
legal land description: In a land patent, an exact identification of the land being transferred using survey terms.
lien: A claim placed on property by a person who is owed money.
local history: Usually, a book about the development of a town or county; these were popular in the late nineteenth century and often include details of the area’s prominent families.
loose probate papers: Files kept in probate packages that consist of original accounts, receipts, distributions, and other papers not recorded in the probate books.
manuscripts: Private documents and records such as diaries, letters, family Bible entries, and organizations’ papers; you can find manuscript collections through a search of the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) library holdings.
marital agreements: Contracts between parties who are either on the threshold of marriage or of separation. These may be premarital, antenuptial, or postnuptial agreements.
medical records: Paperwork associated with medical treatments from hospitals, asylums, doctors, or midwives; may be considered private documents and inaccessible to the public.
meridian: An imaginary north-south line; a principal meridian is the starting point for a rectangular land survey.
metes and bounds: A land survey method employing compass directions, landmarks and distances between points.
military records: Records of military service kept by the federal government (from the Revolutionary War to the present) and state government (for state militias and guards); examples are service records, pensions, bounty land warrant applications, draft registration cards, and discharge papers.
Miracode system: An indexing system similar to Soundex used to organize the results of the 1910 census; the computer-generated cards are organized first by Soundex code, then alphabetically by county, then alphabetically by given name.
mitochondrial DNA: Genetic material mothers pass on to both male and female children. Because it’s passed down relatively unchanged, mtDNA can reveal “deep ancestry” along your maternal line—but not definitive links to recent generations.
mortality schedule: A special federal census schedule listing persons who died during the census year.
MRCA (most recent common ancestor): The most recent ancestor two individuals descend from.
mutation: Change in DNA that spontaneously occurs. Mutations can reveal how long ago two individuals’ MRCA lived.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): The United States’ repository for federal records, including censuses, military service and pension records, passenger lists and bounty land warrants; in addition to the primary archives in Washington, DC, NARA has regional facilities across the nation.
naturalization records: Documents of the process by which an immigrant becomes a citizen. An individual has to live in the United States for a specific period of time and file a series of forms with a court before he or she can become naturalized. Naturalization records provide the birth place and date, date of arrival into the United States, place of residence at the time of naturalization, a physical description of the person and sometimes the name of the ship the person immigrated on and the individual’s occupation.
negative evidence: When a record is not found where it should appear, providing evidence toward a conclusion.
New England Historical and Genealogical Register System: A genealogical numbering system showing an individual’s descendants by generation. All children in a family get Roman numerals (i, ii, iii …) and every child later listed as a parent also gets an Arabic numeral (2, 3, 4 … ). The system is named for the journal of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
NGS Quarterly (NGSQ) system: A narrative report showing an individual’s descendants by generation. It uses an alternative numbering system to the other reports. A plus sign indicates that a child appears as a parent in the next generation. The system is named for the journal of the National Genealogical Society.
nuncupative will: An oral will declared or dictated by the testator in his last illness before a sufficient number of witnesses.
onomastics: The study of names. Study the names of collateral kin for naming patterns and to identify unusual given names and middle names used in the family. If you are researching a common surname, given names of several family members can make it easier to distinguish your Brown or Jones from the others.
oral history: A collection of family stories told by a family member or friend.
original record: A document in its original format, such as an actual death register or a diary. An original record may contain both primary information (the death date on a death certificate) and secondary information (on a death certificate, the deceased’s birth date may have been provided by an informant who wasn’t present when the person was born).
orphan asylum: An orphanage, or home for children whose parents have died.
passenger list: List of names and information about passengers who arrived on ships; submitted to customs collectors at every port by the ship’s master. Passenger lists weren’t officially required by the US government until 1820.
pedigree: List of a person’s ancestors.
pension (military): A benefit paid regularly to a veteran or his widow for military service or a military service-related disability.
per capita tax: Fixed taxes, levied by head (per person). See poll tax.
Periodical Source Index (PERSI): A print and online index to thousands of genealogy and local history periodicals published in the United States and Canada back to the 1700s; PERSI is a project of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind., and available through Findmypast <www.findmypast.com>.
petition for naturalization: An alien resident’s request to be made a citizen, often called “second papers” because it was submitted after filing a declaration of intention and fulfilling any residency requirements.
plat: A drawing showing the boundaries and features of a piece of property; in genealogy, a surveyor would have created such a drawing from a metes-and-bounds or legal land description.
poll (or head) tax: Issued by colonial and antebellum counties and towns, this was a set, uniform amount that adult males were assessed beginning at age twenty-one (sixteen or eighteen in some areas) and continuing until they reached a set age, customarily fifty or sixty.
preemption: The right of a settler to acquire property that he had occupied before the government officially sold or surveyed it.
primary information: Data reported by an informant who has firsthand knowledge of an event. For example, an attending physician or coroner may provide primary information about a person’s death on her death certificate.
primary source: A record or other piece of data created at the time of a particular event; a primary source is always the original record—birth and death certificates are primary sources for those events. Note that an original record isn’t always a primary source: For example, a death certificate isn’t a primary source for birth information.
primogeniture: The exclusive right possessed by the eldest son, by virtue of his seniority, to succeed to the estate of his ancestor, to the exclusion of the younger sons.
probate records: Documents related to administering a deceased individual’s property; they may include an individual’s last will and testament. Information varies, but may include the name of the deceased, his age at death, property, family members, and last place of residence.
provenance: The history of ownership of an item.
public land: Land originally owned by the federal government and sold to individuals.
Quaker: A member of the religious group called the Society of Friends; Quakers kept detailed records of their congregations, including vital statistics.
quarter section: In the rectangular survey system, one-fourth of a section of land, equal to 160 acres.
quitclaim: A release; an intention to pass title, interest, or claim that the grantor may have over the premises.
quitrent: A land tax typical of the colonies of New York and the South, assessed by the ruler of the colony to increase revenue.
range: A row or column of townships lying east or west of the principal meridian and numbered successively to the east and to the west from the principal meridian.
real property: Land and anything attached to it, such as houses, buildings, barns, growing timber, and growing crops.
recombination: The process by which chromosomes cross and switch genetic material at conception.
rectangular survey system: The land survey method the US General Land Office used most often; it employs base lines, one east-west and one north-south, that cross at a known geographic position. Townships—each generally twenty-four square miles—are described in relation to the base lines. Townships are subdivided into sections.
secondary information: Data reported by an informant who does not have firsthand knowledge of an event. A deceased woman’s son who is the informant on her death certificate and provides his mother’s birth date is giving secondary information.
secondary source: A document created after an event occurred, such as a biography, local history, index, or oral history interview; original records can be secondary sources for information about earlier events (a death certificate is a secondary source for a birth date).
section: A division of land within a township that measures one square mile (640 acres)—about 1/36 of a township; sections were further subdivided into half-sections, quarter-sections, and sixteenth-sections, or into lots.
self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE): Include an SASE when you request records from people and institutions.
SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism): Harmless mutations in autosomal DNA that can indicate where your ancient ancestors came from.
Social Security Death Index: An index of Social Security Death records; includes names of deceased Social Security recipients whose relatives applied for Social Security Death Benefits after their passing.
Soundex: A system of coding surnames based on how they sound, used to index the 1880 and later censuses; Soundex is useful in locating records containing alternate surname spellings. Soundex cards are arranged by Soundex code, then alphabetically by given name.
state land: Land originally owned by a state or another entity, rather than the federal government.
STR (short tandem repeat): A type of recurring DNA marker used to determine relationships between individuals.
testate: Describes a person who died with a will.
tithe: The tenth part of one’s income contributed for charitable or religious purposes. Broadly interpreted, any tax or assessment of one tenth. Titheable may be synonymous with taxable. A tithing man was the constable. In colonial Virginia, the tithe was imposed on the personal property of males of productive age, as established by legislative act—variously sixteen to twenty-one years of age.
township: In a government survey, it’s a square tract six miles on each side (thirty-six square miles); a name given to the civil and political subdivisions of a county.
tract: A parcel of land that isn’t fully contained within a single section; tracts within a township are numbered beginning with 37 to avoid confusion with section numbers.
union list or catalog: A bibliography or catalog of materials held by multiple repositories, such as the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, a finding aid for personal papers in institutions nationwide.
usury: Historically, all interest paid.
visitation number: On a 1910 Miracode index card, the house number of the indexed individual.
vital records: Official records with basic information about a person’s birth, marriage and/or divorce date and place, and death date and burial place.
vivandière: A woman who followed a military regiment as a sutler or canteen keeper. Though exact numbers are unknown, many women served in this capacity during the American Civil War.
volume number: On a Soundex or Miracode index card, the number of the census volume with the indexed name.
voter registration: A list of registered voters for each state. Voter registration lists are sometimes the first public records of former slaves. Many states have microfilmed their lists.
will: A document in which a person outlines what should be done with his or her estate after death; the legal process to see that those instructions are carried out is called probate.
witness: A person who sees an event and signs a document attesting to its content being accurate; family members, friends, neighbors and business associates commonly witnessed documents.
X: What the signer of a document would often write if he couldn’t write his name; a witness would typically label this “his mark.”
X-DNA: Genetic material parents pass on to their children along the X chromosome. X-DNA is often tested as part of autosomal DNA tests.
Y-DNA: Genetic material fathers pass on to their sons along the Y chromosome. Y-DNA tests can confirm (or disprove) genealogical links through a paternal line.