The definitions below are preserved as a historical genealogy and land-record glossary.
Dave's Anthology of Genealogy and Land Terms
ABSTRACT - a brief statement of the main parts of a document.ABSTRACT BOOKS - List individual entries chronologically by district land office (Old Federal books are at Bureau of Land Management)
ABSTRACT OF TITLE - a condensed history of the title of a piece of real property, including any liabilities to which it may be subject.
ACQUIRED LANDS - Federal lands obtained by purchase, condemnation or gift under laws other than public land laws
ADMINISTRATOR - one legally authorized by the court to manage and settle an estate when the deceased has not left a will and named and executor. (female, ADMINISTRIX)
AFFINITY - a relationship by marriage, rather than by blood
ANNO DOMINI - a Latin term meaning "in the year of our Lord".
APPURTENANCES - Things belonging to another thing such a yards and gardens to a building
APPURTENANT - An accessory incidental to land in which a person owns an estate. Such as an agreement or right f way across the land of another.
APPRENTICE - a person, often a minor, bound (sometimes by law) to a master for the purpose of learning a trade.
ARCHIVES - 1. chives from Arkansas. :-) 2. a place where records are kept.
ASSIGNS - To transfer property, particularly personal or moveable property voluntarily or for consideration
ATTEST - to bear witness to something and affirm formally with your signature that it is true.
BANNS - public announcement, especially in church, of intention to be married.
BENEFICE - A kind of land tenure adopted in the Frankish kingdom in the eighth century whereby a seigneur leased land to a freeman in beneficium (for his benefit) usually for the tenant's life but sometimes hereditary; later an ecclesiastical office to which church attached perpetual right of receiving income.
BENEFICIARY - a person for whose benefit a trust is created.
BEQUEATH - to give personal property by a will.
BEQUEST - a gift of personal property by a will.
BOUNTY LAND WARRANT - A right to obtain land, a specific number of acres of unallocated public land granted for military service. BLW or BLWT
Caveat emptor - Let the buyer beware.
CENSUS - a count of population which includes various kinds of statistics.
CERTIFIED COPY - a copy of a document signed and certified as a true copy by the officer to whose custody the original was entrusted.
Cestui que trust - A beneficiary of property held by a trustee in trust.
Cestui que use - A person whose property was transferred for the benefit of another person.
Cestui que vie - A life estate transferred to a person
CHATTELS REAL - Rights derived out of real estate, devolved on personal representatives, not heir
CHILD OF TENDER YEARS - a child under age 14.
CHRISTEN - to baptize an infant.
CLOSE - Field or piece of land separate from others or from common land by a bank or hedge, legally unjustified entry into such is trespass (quare clausum fregit)
CODICIL - a P. S. to a will.
COLLATERAL - belonging to the same ancestral stock, but not in the direct line of descent. (i.e. aunts, cousins, etc.)
CONSANGUINITY - a relationship by blood.
CONSORT - wife or husband of a living spouse.
CONVEYANCE DEED - Transfer of property from one person to another.
COPYHOLD - A tenure of land in England (feudal) abolished in 1925, when it all became freehold
CORPOREAL HEREDITAMENT - Right to inheritance of tangible property, e.g. an estate in land
CORPOREAL RIGHTS - Tangible rights in property, such as an estate in land as opposed to "incorporeal" rights.
CROFT - A small parcel of land.
CURTESY - The life estate of a widower n the lands of his deceased spouse, if he sired issue by her which were or was borm alive
CUSTOMARY FREEHOLD - privileged copyholds
DECEDENT - deceased person.
DEED - A document in writing, if signed and acknowledged by which an estate or interest in land is transferred from a grantor to a grantee, or donor to a donee if a gift deed.
DEED POLL - A deed executed or signed by one person only, even though other grantors were involved, and in some instances the names of the grantees were added later.
DEMISE - A lease, transferring from a lessor to a lessee a leasehold estate for a term of years, for life, or "at the will" of the landlord.
DEPONENT - person who gives evidence, especially in writing.
DESCENDANT - offspring to the furthest generation.
DEVISE - a gift of real property by will.
DEVISEE - One to whom real property is given in a will. (Devisor - one who gives the property)
DIRECT DEED - Pertaining to grantor deeds
DISPOSAL - A transaction which leads to the transfer of the title of public lands to non-Federal ownership
DISSEISIN - The ouster or removal of a person from possession of real property.
District Land Office Plat Book - A book of maps which show the location of the land of the patentee (In Cartographic Branch of the National Archives)
DONATION APPLICATION - Application for frontier land in Florida, New Mexico, Oregon or Washington.
DOWER - After the death of a husband, a widow's one-third interest in his land for the rest of her life (There is no dower in community property states.)
EASEMENT - A right of way, right of use but not possession over or in the lands of another person.
EMINENT DOMAIN - The right and power of government to condemn private property for public use if just compensation is paid the property owner.
ESTATE - the total of a person's property, both real and personal.
ET AL - a Latin term meaning "and others".
ET UXOR - a Latin term meaning "and his wife".
EXECUTOR - a person appointed by a testator (person writing will) to carry out the directions and bequests in the will. (female, EXECUTRIX)
GAZETTEER - a geographical dictionary.
GENEALOGY - an enumeration of the history of the descent of a family.
GRANT - a general term applicable to all transfers of real property.
GRANTEE - the person to whom a grant is made.
GRANTOR - the person by whom the grant is made.
HEIR - the person(s) who succeeds, by rules of law, to an estate upon the death of his ancestor by right of relationship.
INDENTURE - a deed to which two or more persons are parties, and in which these enter into reciprocal and corresponding grants or obligations towards each other.
INFANT - a minor, a person not of full legal age. (This legal term does not apply only to babes in arms.)
INTESTATE - a person dies without a will.
ISSUE - all lineal descendants of a common ancestor are his issue--not just his children.
LEGACY - a bequest or gift of personal property by last will and testament.
LETTERS OF ADMINISTRATION - often known as ADMON. The instrument whereby the probate court appoints someone to administer an estate of a person who died without leaving a will.
LINEAL - being in direct line of ancestry.
MARRIAGE LICENSE - a license whereby permission is granted by a public authority for persons to be married.
MORTGAGE - conditional transfer of title to property, as security for payment of debt.
NUNCUPATIVE WILL - a will which depends merely upon oral evidence, having been dictated or declared by the testator in his last sickness before a sufficient number of witnesses, and afterward written down.
PEDIGREE - recorded ancestry or line of descent...often in chart form.
POSTERITY - descendants.
POWER OF ATTORNEY - When a person isn't able to act for himself and appoints another to act for him, the document by which he does so is call a "power of attorney" or "letter of attorney". The person appointed becomes "attorney in fact".
PRESENTS - means literally "this document or instrument". The phrase "by these presents" is used to refer to the document or instrument in which the phrase occurs.
PROBATE - the act or process of proving a will. Also used as an inclusive term referring to all matters under the jurisdiction of the probate court.
QUITCLAIM DEED - an instrument by which a person releases all title, interest, or claim which he may possess in real property without making a warrants thereto.
RELICT - a widow or widower, the surviving spouse.
PROGENITOR - an ancestor in the direct line.
TENANT - a person who possesses the lands by any right or title.
TESTABLE - capable of making a will.
TESTAMENTORY - pertaining to a will.
TESTATE - one who dies leaving a valid will.
TESTATOR - one who makes a will.
TO WIT - namely.
TRACT - a piece of land of any size.
TRACT BOOK - A book which lists individual entries by range and township
TRANSCRIBE - to write a copy of.
TRUST DEED - This is a type of mortgage.
VITAL RECORDS - statistics relating to birth, death, marriage, etc.
WARRANTY DEED - a deed whereby the grantor warrants the title and should the title become faulty for any reason, the grantor (or his heirs) can be sued on the warranty.
WILL - a legal expression of a person's wishes as to the disposition of his property after his death.
YOUNGER CHILDREN - all children not entitled by rights of the eldest son--this includes daughters even though they may be older than the eldest son.