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TRANSCRIBED DOCUMENTS 

APPENDIX TO THE TRANSCRIBED DOCUMENTS

LEGAL TERMS

ABSTRACT - Summary of important points of a given text, especially deeds and wills.
ACRE - See measurements.
ADMINISTRATION (of estate) - The collection, management and distribution of an estate by proper legal process.
ADMINISTRATOR (of estate) - Person appointed to manage or divide the estate of a deceased person.
ADMINISTRATRIX - A female administrator.
AFFIDAVIT - A statement in writing, sworn to before proper authority.
AMERCEMENT - The infliction of a penalty or fine at the "mercy" of the inflicter (originally, one lighter than fixed fines). (i.e. An arbitrary fine) - The Oxford Universal Dictionary, Third Edition, 1955.
ANCESTOR - A person from whom you are descended; a forefather.
APPRENTICE - One who is bound by indentures or by legal agreement or by any means to serve another person for a certain time, with a view of learning an art or trade.
APPURTENANCE - That which belongs to something else such as a building, orchard, right of way, etc.
ATTEST - To affirm; to certify by signature or oath.

BANNS - Public announcement of intended marriage.
BENEFICIARY - One who receives benefit of trust or property.
BEQUEATH - To give personal property to a person in a will. Noun -- bequest.
BOND - Written, signed, witnessed agreement requiring payment of a specified amount of money on or before a given date.
BOUNTY LAND WARRANT - A right to obtain land, specific number of acres of unallocated public land, granted for military service.

CERTIFIED COPY - A copy made and attested to by officers having charge of
the original and authorized to give copies.
CHAIN - See measurements.
CHATTEL - Personal property which can include animate as well as inanimate properties.
CODICIL - Addition to a will.
CONVEYANCE - See deed.
DAUGHTER-IN-LAW - Wife of one's son.
DECEASED - Dead.
DECEDENT - A deceased person.
DEED - A document by which title in real property is transferred from one party to another.
DEPOSITION - A testifying or testimony taken down in writing under oath of affirmation in reply to interrogatories, before a competent officer to replace to oral testimony of a witness.
DEVISE - Gift of real property by will.
DEVISEE - One to whom real property (land) is given in a will.
DEVISOR - One who gives real property in a will.
DISTRICT LAND OFFICE PLAT BOOK - Books or rather maps which show the location of the land patentee.
DISTRICT LAND OFFICE TRACT BOOK - Books which list individual entries by range and township.
DOUBLE DATING - A system of double dating used in England and America from 1582-1752 because it was not clear as to whether the year commenced January 1 or March 25
DOWER - Legal right or share which a wife acquired by marriage in the real estate of her husband, allotted to her after his death for her lifetime.

ESCHEAT - The reversion of property to the state when there are no qualified heirs.
ESTATE - All property and debts belonging to a person.
ET AL - Latin for "and others".
ET UX - Latin for "and wife".
ET UXOR - And his wife. Sometimes written simply Et Ux.
EXECUTOR - One appointed in a will to carry out its provisions. Female = Executrix

FEE - An estate of inheritance in land, being either fee simple or fee tail. An estate in land held of a feudal lord on condition of the performing of certain services.
FEE SIMPLE - An absolute ownership without restriction.
FEE TAIL - An estate of inheritance limited to lineal descendant heirs of a person to whom it was granted.
FREE HOLD - An estate in fee simple, in fee tail, or for life.
FURLONG - See measurements.

GLEBE - Land belonging to a parish church.
GRANTEE - One who buys property or receives a grant.
GRANTOR - One who sells property or makes a grant.

HEIRS - Those entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit property from another.
HEREDITAMENT - Any property that can be inherited - The Oxford Universal Dictionary, Third Edition, 1955.
HOLOGRAPHIC WILL - One written entirely in the testator's own
handwriting.

INDENTURE - Today it means a contract in 2 or more copies. Originally made in 2 parts by cutting or tearing a single sheet across the middle in a jagged line so the two parts may later be matched.
INSTANT - Of or pertaining to the current month. (Abbreviated inst.)
INTESTATE - One who dies without a will or dying without a will.
INVENTORY - An account, catalog or schedule, made by an executor or administrator of all the goods and chattels and sometimes of the real estate of a deceased person.
ISSUE - Offspring; children; lineal descendants of a common ancestor.

LATE - Recently deceased.
LEASE - An agreement which creates a landlord - tenant situation.
LEGACY - Property or money left to someone in a will
LIEN - A claim against property as security for payment of a debt.
LINEAGE - Ancestry; direct descent from a specific ancestor.
LINEAL - Consisting of or being in as direct line of ancestry or descendants; descended in a direct line.
LINK - See measurements.
LIS PENDENS - Pending court action; usually applies to land title claims.

MEASUREMENTS - Link - 7.92 inches; Chain - 100 Links or 66 feet; Furlong - 1000 Links or 660 feet; Rod - 5 1/2 yds or 16 1/2 ft (also called a perch or pole); Rood - From 5 1/2 yards to 8 yards, depending
on locality; Acre - 43,560 square ft or 160 square rods.
MESSUAGE - Originally, the portion of land intended for the site of a dwelling-house and its appurtenances. In modern legal use, a dwelling-house with its outbuildings and curtilage (piece of ground attached to a dwelling-house) and the adjacent land assigned to its use.  - The Oxford Universal Dictionary, Third Edition, 1955.
METES & BOUNDS - Property described by natural boundaries, such as 3 notches in a white oak tree, etc.
MOIETY - A half; an indefinite portion
MORTGAGE - A conditional transfer of title to real property as security for payment of a debt.

NONCUPATIVE WILL - One declared or dictated by the testator, usually for persons in last sickness, sudden illness, or military.

PATENT - Grant of land from a government to an individual.
PEPPERCORN RENT - A nominal rent. A pepperberry is of no appreciable value, and given as rent is a simple acknowledgement that the tenement virtually belongs to the person by whom the peppercorn is given, though the freehold belongs to him who receives it. - Brewer's Dictionary Of Phrase And Fable, 6th Edition, 1962.
PERCH - See measurements.
POLE - See measurements.
POST - Latin prefix meaning after, as in post-war economy.
POWER OF ATTORNEY - When a person in unable to act for himself, he appoints another to act in his behalf.
PRAECIPE - This writ of praecipe is also called a writ of covenant, and is sued out by the party to whom lands are to be conveyed by fine; the foundation of which is a supposed agreement or covenant that the one shall convey the land to the other.
PRE - Latin prefix meaning before, as in pre-war military build-up.
PROBATE - Having to do with wills and the administration of estates.
PROGENITOR - A direct ancestor.
PROGENY - Descendants of a common ancestor; issue.
PROVED WILL - A will established as genuine by probate court.
PROVOST - A person appointed to superintend, or preside over something.
PROXIMO - In the following month, in the month after the present one.
PUBLIC DOMAIN - Land owned by the government.

QUITCLAIM - A deed conveying the interest of the party at that time.

SIBLING - Person having one or both parents in common with another; a brother or sister.
SIC - Latin meaning thus; copied exactly as the original reads. Often
suggests a mistake or surprise in the original.
SPONSOR - A bondsman; surety.
STATUTE - Law.

TESTAMENTARY - Pertaining to a will.
TESTATE - A person who dies leaving a valid will.
TESTATOR - A person who makes a valid will before his death.
TITHABLE - Taxable.
TITHE - Formerly, money due as a tax for support of the clergy or church.
TRADITION - The handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, genealogies, etc. from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth.
TRANSCRIBE - To make a copy in writing.
ULTIMO - In the month before this one.

VERBATIM - Word for word; in the same words, verbally.
VITAL RECORDS - Records of birth, death, marriage or divorce.
VITAL STATISTICS - Data dealing with birth, death, marriage or divorce.

WILL - Document declaring how a person wants his property divided after his death.
WITNESS - One who is present at a transaction, such as a sale of land or signing of a will, who can testify or affirm that it actually took place.

YEOMAN - A servant, an attendant or subordinate official in a royal household; a subordinate of a sheriff; an independent farmer.

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