ROOTS
Dictionary of Genealogy & Archaic Terms
[E]
Last Edited:
January 17, 2012
This file contains many of the common "buzzwords", terminology and legal
words found in genealogy work. If you think of any words that should be added to
this list, please notify Randy Jones.
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- EADEM
- [Latin] same
- EALDORMAN
- [Anglo-Saxon] an individual in charge of large regions, equivalent to
(although not exactly co-terminal with) the old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms - not
just the counties that Earls
came to control. For example, in 1066 under Edward, you could draw a line from
Portsmouth to Edinburgh, and only pass through the lands of three ealdormen,
Harold (Wessex), Edwin (Mercia), and Morcar (Northumbria). At this period,
they are sometimes called Earls and Earldoms, due to the replacement of the
English word "ealdorman" by the Scandinavian "jarl", but these Earldoms are
not the same as the Anglo-Norman ones, which are more comparable to the shires
of Anglo-Saxon times.
- EAM
- [Latin] she
- EARL
- [fr. Anglo-Saxon eorl] The earl, as a royal officer, superseded the
Anglo-Saxon
ealdorman
and was sometimes set over several counties, in the courts of each of which he
presided with the bishop of the diocese. The English earl was in general
entitled to the "third penny", a third of the profits of justice in the
shire
court. In the two great count
palatine earldoms of Chester and Durham, the earl possessed regalia,
special royal privileges. The earl is similar and probably derivative from the
Scandinavian jarl
and is equivalent in rank of peerage
to the continental count.
- EARL MARSHAL
- The Earl Marshal of England was (or is) the eighth officer of state; the
title is hereditary, being held by the Duke of Norfolk (since 1672). The Earl
Marshal has jurisdiction in the court of chivalry
during a vacancy in the office of High Constable.
Until 1386, the title was marshal. With the lord high constable he was judge
of the court of chivalry.
- EARMARKS
- earmarks used in identification of livestock. Many times, earmarks stayed
within a family. It was possible to identify family relationships, as earmarks
could be passed father to son
- ECCLESCIA
- [Latin] church
- ECUYER
- [French] somewhat like that of an English country squire, except in the
case of an "ecuyer" of a royal house where it is considered a title IIRC, is
either fifth or seventh in order of precedence in a royal household. -- [email protected]
- EDOR
- homestead
- EG
- [Scot.] in medieval times, the compensation due for killing a man
- EGO
- [Latin] I
- EIRE
- [Irish] the Irish name for Ireland
- EJUS
- [Latin] he
- EJUSDEM
- [Latin] of the same
- ELECTORS
- a German Imperial (German Kurfrsten) group of ecclesiastical and secular
German princes invested with the power of electing the king of Germany, who in
turn would usually be crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by the pope.
Originally, all the princes of the empire voted in the election of the German
king. In 1263, however, Pope Urban IV issued two bulls recognizing the
authority of seven German potentates to choose the king. Nevertheless, the
authority and membership of this electorate were not definitely settled until
1356, when the Golden Bull was issued by Emperor Charles IV. The bull named to
the electorate the archbishops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier and four lay
members, the margrave of Brandenburg, the duke of Saxony, the count palatine
of the Rhine, and the king of Bohemia. From that time the composition of the
electorate remained unchanged until 1623, when the vote of the count palatine
was transferred to the duke of Bavaria. In 1648 an eighth electoral vote was
added so that the count palatine could vote again, and in 1692 a ninth vote
was created for the electorate of Hannover. The number of electors reverted to
eight in 1778 after extinction of the Bavarian ducal line. Beginning in the
15th century, the electors normally awarded the kingship to the head of the
house of Habsburg; the practice of papal coronation disappeared after 1530.
With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the German Imperial
Electorate was simultaneously dissolved.
- EMBATTLED
- [Heraldric] crenulated
- EMBOLISMIC DAY
- a day or month inserted into the calendar to better align it with the
cycles of the moon. An example if the leap day on the western
calendar.
- EMIR
- see AMIR
- ENCHAINMENT
- the phenomena whereby the consonant sound at the end of a word is
transferred to the word that follows it
- ENDOGAMY
- a familial system where marriages between close relatives are
allowed. This was common in ancient Egypt (the pharaoh usually married
his sister) and the Middle East, as opposed to the currently accepted exogamy
- ENFEOFF
- 1. To invest with a
fee or fief.
2. To hand over as a fief.
- ENFEOFMENT
- a surrender or relinquishing, especially land
- ENGRAILED
- [Heraldric] indented with small curves
- ENTAIL
- To entail is to restrict the inheritance of real property to a specific
group of heirs, such as an individual's sons, different than normal
inheritance dictates. By the statue English De Domis Conditionalibus,
(1285), an estate so limited devolved, on the death of the donee, on his
issue; and, on the failure of issue, reverted to the donor and his heirs.
- ENUMERATION
- process by which persons are counted for purposes of a
census
- ENUMERATOR
- census taker
- EODEM
- [Latin] to the same place/person/day
- EORL
- see EARL
- EORLCUNDMAN
- [Anglo-Saxon] a man of noble birth
- EPIMELETÊS
- a Roman and Byzantine official title for a manager or curator of financial
or sacred matters of the market, harbor or weights & measures. The
title also could be an honorary one.
- EPISCOPUS
- [Latin] bishop
- EPITROPOS
- a Roman and Byzantine title indicating one in charge; trustee;
administrator; governor; viceroy
- EPONYM
- a family, group or dynastic name or identification create from the name of
an ancestor.
- EQUERRY
- a person attached to the royal stables who attends the sovereign on state
occasions
- ERMINE/ERMINES/ERMINOIS
- [Heraldic] one of the seven colors
allowed -- represented by an argent
field, tufted with black. Ermines is the reverse of ermine, being black,
spotted or timbered with argent.
Erminois is the same as ermine, except that or
is substituted for argent.
- ERSE
- [Irish] the Irish name for the Irish language
- ESCALLOP
- [Heraldic] shell
- ESCHEAT
- a reversion of property to the state in consequence of a want of any
individual competent to inherit. Escheat at feudal law was the right of the
lord of a fee to re-enter upon the same when it became vacant by the
extinction of the blood of the tenant. This extinction might either be per defectum sanguinis or else
per delictum tenetis, where the course of descent
was broken by the corruption of the blood of the tenant. As a fee might be
held either of the crown or from some inferior lord, the escheat was not
always to the crown. The word "escheat" in the U.S. merely indicates the
preferable right of the state to an estate left vacant, and without there
being any one in existence able to make claim thereto. {B}
- ESCHEATOR
- an officer or assistant of the office of Escheator General (or his
assistant) - the officer who presided over the hearing held to determine
whether land escheated (because the owner died without heirs)
- ESCUTCHEON
- armorial
bearings displayed on a shield
- ESQUIRE
-
- A member of the English gentry who ranks just below a knight.
- It also refers to a candidate for knighthood who serves as an attendant
to a knight, and carries his arms, as opposed to an armiger,
who is entitled to wear his own arms.
- Someone who holds an office from the crown such as a Justice of the
Peace, a sheriff, or a judge.
- An attorney who has graduated from law school and passed the bar.(modern
use)
- landed proprietor, or landed gentry. Often shortened to "Squire"
- An obscure usage: When a son is named after his father, he is called I,
II, III, etc. (ie: William M. Radford, VI). When the first born mail heir of
that lineage is given a different name, he is given the title "esquire".
- ESSOIN
- allegation of an excuse for non-attendance at court at the
appointed time
- EST
- [Latin] is
- ESTATE
- the whole of one's possessions; especially all the property left by a
deceased person, although the term may be used for a living person as
well
- ESTATE FOR LIFE
- See LIFE ESTATE
- ESTATE OF FRANKMARRIAGE
- an estate of inheritance given to a man and his wife, the wife being of
the blood of the donor, and descendible to the heirs of their two bodies. {W}
One of the pecularities of this mechanism is that when a father gives a
daughter land in marriage and her issue fails within a few generations or she
has no issue, the land reverts to him or his heir. If the land is given in
frankmarriage, no homage
is done until the daughter's third heir has entered, for were homage
once done, there would be a danger that the land would never come back to the
father or his heir. See also TENURE
EN PARAGE.
- ESTOILE
- [Heraldric] small star
- ET
- [Latin] and
- ETIAM
- [Latin] also, besides, again
- ET AL
- [Latin] and others
- ET UX, ET UXOR
- [Latin] and wife
- ETHNARCH
- ruler of a people, rather than a territory. Term was applied by the
Romans to Archeleus III of Judæa, for his
inheritance from his father Herod the great
- EUROPAISCHE STAMMTAFELEN (ES)
- a multivolume and multiseries of European medieval genealogy, considered
the best secondary source in that area
- EVANGELISCHE
- [German] in Germany it is synonymous with Lutheran, whereas in
Switzerland it meant Reformed Protestant Church, or followers of Calvin and
Zwengli
- EWAGE
- obligation of military service to a lord
- EX
- [Latin] from
- EX-ADELPHOS
- [Greek] cousin
- EXCHEQUER
- the British agency that controlled the King's finances and revenue.
The Exchequer had its own Exchequer
Court.
- EXCOMMUNICATION
- exclusion from membership and communion in the church
- EXECUTOR
- the person named in a will and appointed by the court to carry out the
provisions of the will
- EXECUTRIX
- a female EXECUTOR
- EXTENTS
- the formal recitation of the composition and value of an estate, including
services, rents, property, etc.
- EXARCH
- in the hierarchy of the eastern orthodox church, this priest ranked over
the metropolitans, whose jurisdiction
corresponded with the dioceses
- EXILARCH
- ancient Jewish leader of those exiled from Judea to Babylon by
Nebuchadnezzar in 598 BC, with a dynastic line that continued until 1401 when
the last leader was deposed by Tamerlane.
- EXOGAMY
- a familial system where marriage is made outside the family, i.e., no
marriage between brother/sisters, uncle/nieces or close cousins are allowed, a
opposed to endogamy.
- EXTANT
- in existence
- EVE
- the day before, especially before a festival. It is not short for
"evening".
- EYRE
- [Latin, iter] right of the king to visit and inspect the property
of any vassal
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Sources:
{A}The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third
Edition copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
{B} Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition
{D} Dictionary.com
{E} Evans, Barbara Jean. The New A to Zax
{F}The Dictionary of Genealogy by Terrick V H Fitzhugh
{H} History of the Later Roman Empire, Vol.1, J.B. Bury,
1958.
{O}The Oxford English Dictionary
{P} Pepys' diary
{R} Random House Unabridged Dictionary (2006)
{Q} Hinshaw, William Wade, "Encyclopedia of America Quaker Genealogy," (1938,
Rpt., Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994)
{W} Webster's Collegiate Dictionary; Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA,
Inc.
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