Yesterday I had a lot of fun learning about two new genealogy terms. My thirst for knowledge was not quenched after learning jus those two words, so I have decided to find a few more genealogy terms that I did not know prior to now. Perhaps you know these terms, but maybe you don’t. Either way, genealogy terms are a handy part of your genealogist’s tool kit because if you can’t understand what a document says, it is very difficult to figure out how it fits into your research.
If your research involves English and European marriage records and you see the word “virgo”, don’t be fooled into thinking that the record is referring to the person’s astrological sign. In these records, the term is used to refer to an unmarried woman. Likewise, “liber” is not an incorrectly spelled reference to someone born under the astrological sign of Libra. A liber is a book of public records.
If an individual is listed as base-born, it means that he or she was born to an unmarried woman. One of your ancestors may be referred to as a yeoman. This means that they were a farmer. Reference to a grandam should not confuse you if you see it in a time period before the invention of the automobile. Grandam is an old form of grandmother. It is also useful to note that grandmothers and grandfathers are referred to by many different names, depending upon the cultural background of the family and the time period during which they lived. I grew up with grandmas and grandpas, but my son has a Grammy, a Grandpa, a G’Ma and a Papa.
Speaking of family, in the days before many people considered their in-laws to be outlaws, they referred to them in a very positive way. Good-Brother, Good-Sister, and Good Son would mean Brother-in-Law, Sister-in-Law, and Son-in-Law. I actually love my in-laws very much and may begin referring to them as the “Goods”.