[especially as used in the family and individual notes]
Did you find a term you did not understand? Let me know so it can be added to this glossary.

ahnentafel

An ahnentafel report is a narrative-style report that begins with one person and moves backward in time. The ahnentafel report includes ancestors (parents, parents' parents, etc.) of the source person along with any information about each ancestor along the way. The report is similar to a pedigree chart in that it begins with a source person and moves backward in time. Each ancestor is assigned a unique ahnentafel number, beginning with 1 for the source person. (Ahnentafel is a German word that translates as ancestor table.) The report is divided by generation.

The ahnentafel (or Sosa-Stradonitz) numbering system assigns the number 1 to the source person. The father of number 1 is number 2. The spouse of 2 is 3. The rule is: to find the father of a person, double the number. To find the mother of a person, double the number and add 1.

[Explanation and image from Reunion's help file]

[In an individual's page in the database, click on "Ancestors" and you will be given a range of options which includes "ahnentafel".]

almhouse or almshouse

a house appropriated for the use of the poor; a poorhouse.

argent, abbr. ar

Silver - used in coat of arms/crest descriptions

arms tricked

to draw in outline, as with a pen; to delineate without colour, as coats of arms

at sign @

does not really need explaining in a glossary but what do you call "@"?
Check out http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/whereat.htm

baptism and christening

"Baptism" refers to the ceremony of receiving a person (infant or otherwise) into the church. The term "christening" (= "to make Christ's") is the same thing, popularly used of infants only, though this is not correct. It is essentially an English (i.e. from England) term. Baptism reflects the New Testament Greek word bapti(d)zo. As such it is more international and cross-cultural and of any age. However most genealogy programs and sites tend to use "christen-ed -ing" to refer to infant baptism. This can lead to confusion! I have tended to use "baptism" but you may find some entries using "christening".

bourn

occurs as an addition to a name (Bekesbourne, Bishopsbourne)
(1) "destination," 1523, from Fr. borne, apparently a variant of bodne (cf. "bound" (n.) as in boundary), used by Shakespeare in Hamlet's soliloquy (1602), from which it entered into Eng. poetic speech. He meant it probably in the correct sense of "boundary," but it has been taken to mean "goal" (Wordsworth, Matthew Arnold) or sometimes "realm" (Keats).
(2) "small stream" (also bourne), especially of the winter torrents of the chalk downs

burgess

a citizen of a town or borough

capston ground

?? [capstone?] I'm still trying to work this one out!
A capstone is a stone placed on top of a wall, tomb, or other structure. Or, obviously by association, it can mean the crowning achievement, point, element, or event.

chantry

a chapel or other part of a church endowed for the celebration of masses for the donor’s soul

"child"

The GEDCOM standard defines a "child" as someone from 1 to less than 8 years of age - see also "infant"

christening

see Baptism and christening

coat of arms

A Coat of Arms does not belong to a surname. Many people of the same surname will often be entitled to completely different coats of arms (hence "Hougham of Hougham" and "Hougham of Weddington"), and many of that surname will be entitled to no coat of arms. Coats of arms belong to individuals. For any person to have a right to a coat of arms they must either have had it granted to them or be descended in the legitimate male line from a person to whom arms were granted or confirmed in the past. [College of Arms]

comte

(French) Count

crest

It is a popular misconception that the word 'crest' describes a whole coat of arms or any heraldic device. It does not. A crest is a specific part of a full achievement of arms: the three-dimensional object placed on top of the helm. [College of Arms]

demesne

Land attached to a manor; a domain

"emigration"

The GEDCOM classification "emigration" has been applied more broadly than the formal sense of leaving a country to settle in another, to include moving residence. The data in this field refers to moving to another country.

gavelkind

[M.E., = family tenure], custom of inheritance of lands held in socage tenure (see "socage" below), whereby all the sons of a holder of an estate in land share equally in such lands upon the death of the father. Most of the lands in England were held in gavelkind tenure prior to the Norman Conquest in 1066, and the custom of dividing lands among the male heirs is still preserved in parts of England, notably the county of Kent.

This system of inheritance of lands is to be contrasted with:
borough-English - a custom of inheritance in parts of England whereby land passed typically to the youngest son in preference to his older brothers. Of Anglo-Saxon origin, the custom was abolished by law in 1925; and
primogeniture - in law, the rule of inheritance whereby land descends to the oldest son. Under the feudal system of medieval Europe, primogeniture generally governed the inheritance of land held in military tenure. The effect of this rule was to keep the father's land for the support of the son who rendered the required military service. When feudalism declined and the payment of a tax was substituted for military service, the need for primogeniture disappeared. In England, consequently, there was enacted the Statute of Wills (1540), which permitted the oldest son to be entirely cut off from inheriting, and in the 17th century military tenure was abolished; primogeniture is, nevertheless, still customary in England.

ham

a township or village or home - as in Hougham, a town or home on a hill.

handfast

a "handfast" relationship was a contracted relationship between a man and a wife which was not recognised by the church - something like a common law or de facto relationship today. Children of royal handfast marriages were able to marry well and even succeed to the throne. Perhaps to be seen in the context of contracted marriages which were political in nature and where a handfast relationship was based on love and affinity.

"infant"

The GEDCOM standard defines an "infant" as someone less than 1 year of age - see also "child"

Liberty of the Tower of London

The Liberty of the Tower of London was an area around the Tower which enjoyed privileges and exemptions from the jurisdiction of the City of London and County of Middlesex authorities. It began as land which the Tower authorities were anxious to keep unoccupied for protection, but the land was later occupied. its residents were freed from jury service at assizes and county sessions. Rates were levied only occasionally. The Tower of London and its liberties were included, for local government purposes, in the Whitechapel Board of Works from 1855 and the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney from 1900 when the last vestiges of independence were finally taken away.
(The London Encyclopaedia).

See also The East of London Family History Society

1720 map of the Tower Liberties

lychgate

noun:   a roofed gate to a churchyard, formerly used as a temporary shelter for the bier during funerals

manor

chiefly historical a unit of land consisting of a lord's demesne and lands rented to tenants; today a large country house with lands

messuage

noun: (law) a dwelling house and its adjacent buildings and the adjacent land used by the household

or Latin aurum

Gold - used in coat of arms/crest descriptions

quartering

The arrangement of two or more coats of arms on one shield to form one bearing, as for instance,

1. the royal arms of England, where those of the several countries are conjoined;
2. when a man inherits from both father and mother the right to bear arms;
3. when an alliance of one family with the heiress of another is to be perpetuated.

See the chart of the Hougham arms quartered in Arthur Hougham's drawing of the Hougham pedigree and his notes below the drawing of the coat of arms. He has two Hougham arms - "Hougham of Hougham" and "Hougham of Weddington".

When only two coats are quartered on one shield, as in the case of marriage, the first and fourth quarters display the arms of the husband; the second and third, those of the wife.

In quartering arms, the shield may be divided into as many squares as necessary, and the first coat (that of the bearer) may be repeated or not to make up an even number.

register report

The Register report is named for the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. For some genealogists, this report is the preferred document for genealogy texts. A Register-style report creates a narrative paragraph for each person, beginning with a selected couple and including all descendants up to a specified number of generations. The numbering system is described as follows: each descendant is assigned a unique number, beginning with 1 for the source, followed by his children as 2, 3, 4, etc. In the body of the report, children in a family are listed with lowercase Roman numerals. The entire report is divided by generations.

[Explanation and image from Reunion's help file]

[In an individual's page in the database, click on "Descendants" and you will be given a range of options which includes "register".]