Last Updated: 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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title of head of state among the turkic peoples -- Avars, Pechenegs, Khazars, etc. from the
7th Century CE
KALENDS
the first day of the month under
the Roman calendar, with the abbreviation Kal.
KEELER
a cooler, broad shallow wooden
vessel, where milk was set to cream or wart to cool.
KEEPER
OF THE PEACE
KERMES
red dye
KHADIM
[Arabic] a servant
KHAN
[Turkish] a contraction of 'khaqan',
it is a title of sovereignty over a group of tribes or territories. The
title was used by the Turks in Central Asia from the 10th Century onward, and
later used by the Genghis Khan and his descendants, including the Mongol rulers
of Persia and India
KHARAJ
[Arabic] taxes or tribute
KILDERKIN
a small vessel - the eighth
part of a tun or vat, amounting to between 16-18
gallons
KINDRED
a group of blood-related
persons
KING'S
PEACE
originally a zone around the king
within which any offense was a felony and tried before the the
king. Later the zone was extended to the full realm of the kingdom, and
criminal offenses were tried in the king's
court.
KITH
AND KIN
KNIGHT
originally a warrior who could afford
to fully equip himself, and who was recognized by the king as suitable to fight
on his behalf. His status was below a baron, but higher than a peasant of otherwise freemaen.
After 1400, the honor became hereditary and evolved into three knightly
classes: knights, squires and gentlemen, who as a whole became known as
the gentry.
KNIGHT
HOSPITALLER
an order of knights
charged with caring for the sick and protecting holy places during the Crusades
KNIGHT
TEMPLAR
an order of knights
originally created to protect Jerusalem, and specifically the Temple there, as
well as to protect the pilgrims in transit there. The order was
suppressed beginning 1316, when the King of France feared their growing power
and desired to seize their wealth
KNIGHTS
FEE
Basically, the king owned all the land. He allowed the
nobles to use it in exchange for a service they were to perform for the king,
usually supplying soldiers in time of war for a specified period of time.
Likewise, these big nobles sub-granted portions of their land to lesser gentry
in exchange for a share of the military service owed. The number of knights (not actual single knights on horseback, but
originally the knights, their retainers, servants, and serfs of military age, later simply a company of
foot knights, soldiers, and/or archers) was determined (more or less) by the
value of the territory infeudated. Thus, it was not
the knights' fee that was valued per se, but the land with which the fee was
associated. In the time of Edward I, the value of a knight's fee was worth 20£
per year, or up to 40 days service, if called upon. See French HAUBERT.
KYNAZ
[Slavic] prince
KREIS
See Landkreis.
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{A}The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third
Edition copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. {B} Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Edition {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 {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.Sources:
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