Genealogy A to Z
A word found in an eighteenth-century Scottish testament may not mean exactly what the same word means in a nineteenth-century American probate file. Some historical terms also carried legal or social meanings that differ sharply from modern everyday usage.
Where a definition is specific to Scotland, the United States, a particular legal system or a particular period, this glossary will say so rather than presenting the term as universally applicable.
Basic Genealogy
The Language of the Family Tree
These are the foundation terms used to describe ancestry, descent and relationships. Some sound simple, but distinctions such as direct line versus collateral line or genealogical cousin versus removed cousin become important when documenting a family accurately.
Ancestor
A person from whom another individual directly descends. Parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and earlier generations are all ancestors.
An aunt, uncle or cousin may be a relative, but is not an ancestor.
Collateral Relative
A relative who shares an ancestor with you but is not in your direct ancestral or descendant line.
Siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins are collateral relatives.
Common Ancestor
An ancestor shared by two or more people.
The relationship between cousins is determined by identifying their most recent common ancestor and counting the generations from each descendant back to that person or ancestral couple.
Cousin
A collateral relative descended from a shared ancestor. First cousins usually share grandparents; second cousins usually share great-grandparents; third cousins usually share great-great-grandparents.
The cousin number reflects the number of generations separating each person from the nearest shared ancestral generation.
Descendant
A person who comes from another individual through successive generations.
Children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and later generations are descendants.
Direct Line / Lineal Descent
A continuous parent-to-child line linking one person directly to an ancestor or descendant.
For example: great-grandmother → grandmother → father → child. No aunt, uncle, sibling or cousin is part of that direct line.
Family Group
A set of people believed or demonstrated to belong to the same extended family lineage.
On Guthrie Genealogy, Guthrie Family Group has an additional DNA-project meaning: it identifies a genetically distinct Guthrie paternal lineage supported by Y-DNA evidence.
Genealogy
The study and documentation of family relationships and descent.
Good genealogy goes beyond collecting names and dates. It evaluates records, resolves conflicting evidence, identifies individuals correctly and documents how conclusions were reached.
Generation
One level of descent in a family line.
You and your siblings are one generation; your parents are the preceding generation; your children are the following generation.
Half Relationship
A relationship in which two people share only one biological parent or one member of an ancestral couple.
Half-siblings share one parent. Half-first cousins descend from half-siblings and therefore share only one grandparent rather than an ancestral couple.
Kinship
A general term for relationships created through ancestry, descent, marriage or, depending on the historical context, recognized social or legal family connections.
In older documents, words such as kinsman or cousin may be used more broadly than their precise modern genealogical meanings.
Maternal Line
A line of ancestry traced through a mother or female ancestor.
A direct maternal line specifically means mother → mother → mother through successive generations. This is the line followed by mitochondrial DNA.
Paternal Line
A line of ancestry traced through a father or male ancestor.
A direct paternal line specifically means father → father → father through successive generations. This is the lineage examined by Y-DNA testing in biological males.
Pedigree
A structured representation of ancestry, usually showing a person and the direct ancestors from whom that person descends.
A pedigree chart normally emphasizes ancestors rather than all descendants and collateral relatives.
Pedigree Collapse
The reduction in the number of unique ancestors in a pedigree because the same person appears in more than one ancestral position.
This occurs when relatives have children together—even when the relationship between them is distant—and is common in populations where families remained in the same communities over many generations.
Progenitor
An ancestor from whom a family, branch or lineage is considered to descend.
The term does not necessarily mean the earliest person who ever bore the surname. In genealogy it often means the earliest securely identified ancestor of a particular documented family.
Removed
Describes a difference in generation between two cousins.
Your first cousin’s child is your first cousin once removed. Your first cousin’s grandchild is your first cousin twice removed.
Research Subject
The individual, couple, family or lineage currently being investigated.
Good research keeps the question focused—for example: “Who were the parents of John Guthrie?” rather than simply “Find everything about the Guthries.”
Find the Common Ancestor First
Cousin relationships become much easier once you stop trying to count sideways across the family tree.
Identify the most recent common ancestor, then count the number of generations from each person back to that ancestor. If both descendants are the same number of generations away, they are in the same cousin generation. If one is a generation lower, the relationship is “once removed”; two generations lower means “twice removed,” and so on.
A pedigree chart or online family tree is useful for organizing relationships, but its contents are only as reliable as the evidence supporting them. When evaluating an unfamiliar tree, look for the underlying records, citations and reasoning before adopting its relationships as fact.
DNA & Genetic Genealogy
Different DNA Tests Follow Different Parts of the Family Tree
Genetic genealogy combines DNA evidence with traditional documentary research. The key is choosing the kind of DNA that corresponds to the lineage or relationship being investigated.
Autosomal DNA samples many ancestral lines at once. Y-DNA follows the direct paternal line. Mitochondrial DNA follows the direct maternal line. Each has a different inheritance pattern and therefore answers different genealogical questions.
Three Common Genealogical DNA Paths
Autosomal DNA
Inherited from both parents and reshuffled each generation. Most useful for cousin matching and relationships in more recent generations.
Y-DNA
Follows the biological direct paternal line. Particularly valuable for surname projects and comparing paternal lineages.
Mitochondrial DNA
Inherited by both sons and daughters from their mother, but transmitted to the next generation through mothers.
Autosomal DNA (atDNA)
DNA inherited from both parents on the 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes. Because chromosomes recombine before being passed to each child, siblings inherit different mixtures of their parents’ autosomal DNA.
Autosomal testing is especially useful for cousin matching and recent genealogical relationships, but the amount inherited from a particular ancestor becomes increasingly unpredictable with each generation.
Big Y-700 / Big-Y
FamilyTreeDNA’s high-resolution Y-DNA test. It examines a large portion of the Y chromosome for SNP mutations and also reports hundreds of STR markers.
Big-Y results can define increasingly specific paternal haplogroups, discover new branches and help compare how direct paternal lines separated over time.
Centimorgan (cM)
A unit based on the probability of genetic recombination rather than a simple physical measurement of DNA.
In genetic genealogy, centimorgans are commonly used to describe the amount of autosomal DNA shared between two people. More shared cM generally suggests a closer relationship, but relationship ranges overlap.
Chromosome Browser
A tool that displays where two or more people share autosomal DNA segments along their chromosomes.
It can help researchers compare overlapping segments and investigate whether several matches may descend from the same ancestral line. Not every testing service provides one.
DNA Match
A person whose DNA is sufficiently similar to another tester’s under the matching rules of a particular test or company.
A match does not automatically establish how two people are related. Documentary genealogy is still needed to identify the ancestral connection.
Endogamy
A pattern in which members of a population repeatedly marry within the same community or population over many generations.
Because descendants may share many ancestral paths, autosomal matches can appear genetically closer than a simple relationship prediction suggests. Endogamy therefore requires especially careful interpretation of shared DNA.
Genetic Distance
In Y-STR comparisons, the number of differences between two testers’ marker values. It is sometimes described as the number of “steps” between their STR results.
Genetic distance must be interpreted in relation to the number of STR markers being compared. A distance of two at a small marker level is not equivalent to the same distance across a much larger panel.
Haplogroup
A branch on a genetic family tree defined by inherited mutations. Y-DNA haplogroups describe paternal-line branches; mitochondrial haplogroups describe maternal-line branches.
Haplogroups are not necessarily only about ancient ancestry. Broad branches may be thousands of years old, while highly refined downstream Y-DNA branches can sometimes be recent enough to inform surname-era genealogy.
Identical by Descent (IBD)
DNA shared because two people inherited the same segment from a common ancestor.
Establishing which ancestor supplied an autosomal segment generally requires family-tree research and comparison with other relatives or matches.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
DNA found in the mitochondria rather than the cell nucleus. Both men and women inherit mitochondrial DNA from their mother, but normally only women pass it to the next generation.
It therefore traces the direct maternal line: mother → maternal grandmother → her mother → and so on.
Mutation
A change in DNA that can be passed to descendants when it occurs in the inherited genetic line.
Genetic genealogy relies on accumulated mutations to distinguish branches. Different types of mutations occur at different rates, which is one reason STRs and SNPs serve different purposes in Y-DNA analysis.
Private Variant
In Big-Y analysis, a variant found in a tester that has not yet been assigned to a named shared branch on the Y-DNA haplotree.
A private variant may later become genealogically informative when another tester is found to share it, allowing a new paternal branch to be recognized.
Recombination
The reshuffling of chromosome material that occurs when eggs and sperm are formed. It is why children receive different mixtures of autosomal DNA from the same parents.
Recombination explains why distant documented cousins may share widely different amounts of autosomal DNA—and why some distant cousins may share no detectable segment at all.
Segment
A continuous stretch of DNA shared between individuals. Autosomal matching systems commonly describe segments by their chromosome location and their length in centimorgans.
A shared segment may represent inheritance from a common ancestor, but the ancestral source has to be determined through additional evidence.
Shared Match
A person who appears on the match lists of both you and another DNA match.
Shared matching is extremely useful for grouping relatives, but it does not necessarily mean that all three people share the same DNA segment or the same common ancestor.
SNP — Single Nucleotide Polymorphism
A change at a single position in the DNA sequence. On the Y chromosome, inherited SNPs are used to define branches of the paternal haplotree.
In Big-Y research, newly discovered shared SNPs can identify a previously unknown branch connecting a particular set of paternal-line descendants.
STR — Short Tandem Repeat
A DNA location where a short sequence is repeated a variable number of times.
Y-STR markers mutate often enough to be useful for comparing paternal-line testers and identifying likely surname-era family groups. Differences between testers contribute to their genetic distance.
Terminal Haplogroup
The most downstream named haplogroup currently assigned to a tester on a genetic tree.
“Terminal” does not mean final forever. As additional people test and new mutations are identified, a tester’s reported haplogroup may become more refined and move farther downstream.
TMRCA — Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor
An estimate of how long ago two or more genetic lineages shared their most recent common ancestor.
TMRCA calculations are statistical estimates rather than exact birth dates. Big-Y SNP evidence and additional testers can help refine those estimates over time.
Triangulation
In autosomal DNA research, the comparison of three or more people who share an overlapping DNA segment with one another.
When their genealogies also point to the same ancestral family, triangulation can strengthen the case that the segment came from that common ancestry. It is supporting evidence rather than automatic proof of a specific ancestor.
Y-DNA
DNA on the Y chromosome, which biological males normally inherit from their father.
Because it follows the direct paternal line, Y-DNA is especially useful for surname studies such as the Guthrie DNA Project. Women and men whose Guthrie ancestry comes through a female line can still participate in genealogical research, but they need an appropriate male-line relative to represent that Guthrie Y-chromosome lineage.
Y-DNA Identifies the Paternal Guthrie Family Groups
Guthrie Genealogy uses Y-DNA to identify genetically distinct direct paternal Guthrie lineages. Traditional STR testing can show that men belong to the same broad paternal group, while Big-Y testing adds SNP-defined branches that can subdivide that group into increasingly specific genetic lineages.
The strongest results come when several men representing independently documented branches test. Their pedigrees provide the historical framework; their Y-DNA tests whether those branches actually share the same paternal ancestry.
A DNA match is evidence of biological connection, but it does not automatically identify the ancestor responsible for that match. Likewise, sharing a broad haplogroup does not prove a recent genealogical relationship.
Genetic evidence becomes most useful when it is interpreted beside documented pedigrees, dates, locations, migration patterns and other historical records.
Explore Genetic Genealogy in More Detail
These Guthrie Genealogy pages provide more focused explanations of testing choices, haplogroups and the Guthrie DNA Project.
Records, Dates & Research Methods
Finding a Record Is Only the Beginning
Genealogical research involves more than locating a name in a database. Researchers need to know whether they are looking at an original record, an image, a transcription, an abstract or merely an index—and then decide how reliable the information within that record may be.
These terms describe the records themselves, the way genealogists work with them, and some of the date conventions that can affect historical research.
Abstract
A shortened summary of a record that preserves selected names, dates, relationships or other important details without reproducing every word of the original.
An abstract can be extremely useful, but information omitted by the abstractor may matter to your research question.
Archival Reference
The identifying code or call number assigned by an archive, library or repository to a particular record, file or collection.
Preserve the complete reference whenever possible. A reference such as a GD, CC, CH or manuscript number can be the quickest route back to the underlying record.
Calendar
In archival publishing, a calendar is usually a chronological series of summaries or abstracts of historical documents—not simply a list of dates.
Calendars of state papers, charters and government records are excellent finding aids, but they may condense the language of the originals.
Census
An official enumeration of a population, usually conducted by a government at stated intervals.
Census schedules may record names, ages, occupations, relationships, birthplaces, residence and other information, depending on the country and census year.
Circa / c.
Means approximately or “about.”
A date written as c. 1750 should not be treated as an exact documented date. The estimated range should be based on available evidence whenever possible.
Citation
A description identifying where information came from and providing enough detail for the source to be found again.
A useful citation commonly identifies the creator or repository, record type or collection, date or page, archival reference and, when appropriate, the website or database through which the record was accessed.
Derivative Record
A record created by copying, transcribing, abstracting, translating or otherwise reproducing information from another record.
Derivative records can be excellent research tools, but every copying step creates an opportunity for omission or error.
Direct Evidence
Information that answers a specific research question directly, without requiring multiple facts to be combined.
For example, a record explicitly identifying “John Guthrie, son of William Guthrie” provides direct evidence concerning John’s father—although the reliability of that statement still has to be evaluated.
Double Dating
The practice of writing two year numbers for a date when different calendar or year-start conventions could cause ambiguity—for example, 1688/9.
It is particularly common in British and colonial records from periods when the legal or customary year did not begin on 1 January.
Enumeration
The process of counting and recording a population, especially during a census.
An enumerator is the person who collected or recorded the census information.
Evidence
Information interpreted in relation to a particular research question.
The same record may provide evidence for several different questions—or provide no useful evidence at all for the question currently being investigated.
Extract
A selected portion of a larger record or an officially prepared statement of information drawn from a register or document.
The exact meaning varies by record system. In some jurisdictions an official extract has legal standing and may be issued by the record custodian.
FAN Club
A research strategy based on studying a person’s Friends, Associates and Neighbors.
Witnesses, bondsmen, executors, adjoining landowners, church associates, business partners and migrating neighbors can reveal relationships that are invisible when research is limited to the target ancestor alone.
Finding Aid
A catalogue, inventory, calendar, index, guide or other tool created to help researchers locate records within a collection.
A finding aid describes or points toward records; it is not necessarily the underlying record itself.
Gregorian Calendar
The calendar system introduced in 1582 to correct accumulated drift in the older Julian calendar.
Adoption occurred at different times in different countries, so researchers must know which calendar was in use in the place and period being studied.
Index
A finding tool that points to entries in another record or collection, usually by name, date, place or subject.
An index may contain only a fraction of the information found in the original record and can include spelling, transcription or identification errors.
Indirect Evidence
Evidence that does not answer a research question by itself but contributes to an answer when combined with other facts.
Several independently supported pieces of indirect evidence can sometimes establish a relationship even when no surviving record states it explicitly.
Informant
The person who supplied information recorded in a certificate, register, census entry or other record.
Always ask whether the informant was in a position to know the fact being reported. A widow reporting her husband’s death date may have first-hand knowledge; she may know much less about the names of grandparents who died before she met him.
Julian Calendar
The calendar system used in much of Europe before gradual adoption of the Gregorian calendar.
Dates can differ from their Gregorian equivalents, and changes in the beginning of the legal year can create additional confusion in historical records.
Maiden Surname
A commonly used genealogical term for a woman’s surname before marriage.
In Scottish records, women frequently continued to appear under their birth surnames after marriage, so do not assume that a different surname necessarily indicates a different woman or a later marriage.
Negative Evidence
The meaningful absence of information where the researcher has good reason to expect it to appear.
Silence becomes useful evidence only when the record set, recording practices and expected entry have been investigated carefully. Simply failing to find something is not automatically negative evidence.
Original Record
A record in its earliest surviving recorded form rather than a later transcription, abstract or copy.
A digital image can give a researcher access to an original record even though the researcher is viewing a reproduction of the physical document.
Old Style / New Style Dates
Terms used to distinguish dates recorded under older calendar conventions from dates expressed under newer ones.
The precise issue may involve the Julian versus Gregorian calendar, the start of the legal year, or both. The meaning must therefore be determined from place and period.
Primary Information
Information supplied by someone with first-hand or near-first-hand knowledge of the event being reported.
A record can contain both primary and secondary information. For example, a death certificate may contain reliable first-hand information about the death but second-hand information about the deceased person’s parents.
Record Image
A digital photograph or scan of a historical record.
Whenever available, inspect the image rather than relying solely on an index or database transcription. Marginal notes, witnesses, occupations, relationships and neighboring entries may never appear in the index.
Research Question
A clearly defined genealogical problem the researcher is trying to answer.
Specific questions—such as “Who were the parents of Margaret Guthrie who married in Brechin in 1762?”—produce more effective searches and more defensible conclusions than a general request to “find the family.”
Secondary Information
Information supplied by someone who did not personally witness or directly know the event being reported.
Secondary information is not automatically wrong. It simply deserves evaluation in light of who supplied it, when it was recorded and what other evidence exists.
Source
The record, object, publication, image, database or other item from which information is obtained.
A source does not become reliable merely because it is old, official or online. Its origin, form, informants and relationship to the event must still be evaluated.
Transcription
A written reproduction of the wording in another document.
A good transcription attempts to preserve the original wording, spelling and structure as closely as practical. It remains a derivative record and should be compared with the original image when important details are at stake.
Vital Records
Records of major life events such as births, marriages and deaths, usually created under civil authority.
Availability and content vary enormously by jurisdiction and period. In Scotland, statutory civil registration began in 1855; earlier evidence often comes from church registers and other record types.
Source · Information · Evidence
Is it an original register, a later copy, a published calendar, a transcription, an index, a family Bible, or an online family tree?
Did the informant witness the event, learn it from someone else, or record it many years later from memory?
Does the information directly answer the research question, or does it become meaningful only when combined with other evidence?
12 February 1599 May Not Be as Simple as It Looks
Calendar systems and the official beginning of the year changed at different times in different places. Researchers working across Scotland, England, Ireland, continental Europe and colonial America can therefore encounter dates that were recorded according to different conventions.
Preserve the date as written when transcribing a source, then explain any conversion or normalized modern date separately. Scotland has its own particularly important year-start history, which is covered in the Scottish Records & Practices section.
Genealogy databases often make records discoverable through a searchable index containing only a name, date and place. The underlying image may contain parents, spouse, occupation, residence, witnesses, informants, executors, neighboring entries or other details that never reached the index.
Whenever an original image or fuller record is available, follow the index back to the record itself.
Legal, Probate & Estate Terms
Probate Records Often Name the People Other Records Miss
Wills, testaments, inventories, administration papers, guardianships and court proceedings can identify spouses, children, siblings, in-laws, creditors, business associates and other relatives who may never appear together in a parish register or census.
Legal vocabulary varies by country, jurisdiction and period. A familiar modern word may have had a much narrower historical meaning, so these definitions are starting points rather than substitutes for interpreting the original legal system.
Administrator / Administratrix
A person appointed by a court or other authority to administer an estate when there is no acting executor or when the deceased died without an effective will.
Administratrix is the traditional feminine form, although modern records often use administrator regardless of sex.
Beneficiary
A person or organization entitled to receive property, money or another benefit from a will, trust, estate or similar arrangement.
A beneficiary is not necessarily an heir or blood relative.
Bond
A formal legal obligation, often involving a financial guarantee that a person will perform a required duty.
Estate files may include administrator, executor or guardian bonds. The people acting as sureties can be valuable clues to family, business and community relationships.
Codicil
A document that adds to, changes or clarifies an existing will without necessarily replacing the entire will.
Always read codicils with the original will because names, bequests or executors may have changed after the will was first written.
Devise
Traditionally, a gift of real property made by will, especially land or an interest in land.
The person receiving such property may be called a devisee. Usage varies by jurisdiction and period.
Estate
The property, rights, debts and financial interests associated with a person, particularly at death.
An estate file may contain much more than a will, including inventories, accounts, receipts, petitions, bonds, property sales and distributions.
Executor / Executrix
A person charged with carrying out the terms of a will and administering the deceased person’s estate.
Executrix is the traditional feminine form. The choice of executor can reveal trust or kinship, but being named executor does not by itself prove a family relationship.
Guardian
A person legally responsible for the care, interests or property of another person who cannot manage those matters independently, often a minor child.
Guardianship records can identify deceased parents, children, grandparents and other relatives.
Heir
A person entitled to succeed to property or rights under the inheritance law applicable to a particular place and time.
Historical records may use specialized forms such as heir apparent, heir presumptive, heir of line, or an heir to a particular property. The exact legal meaning matters.
Intestate
Dying without a valid will governing the estate or property in question.
The estate is then distributed according to the inheritance law of the relevant jurisdiction rather than solely according to personal instructions left in a will.
Inventory
A list and valuation of property belonging to an estate.
Inventories can reveal occupation, economic status, household possessions, livestock, tools, books, debts and business relationships—even when they name few relatives.
Issue
In legal and genealogical usage, descendants of a person, usually biological descendants unless the context provides otherwise.
The phrase died without issue generally means that no descendants meeting the relevant legal definition survived or existed, but the precise meaning should be read in context.
Legacy / Legatee
A legacy is a gift made through a will, traditionally especially a gift of money or personal property. A person receiving it is a legatee.
Legal usage differs over time, so do not assume that every beneficiary is described by the same term.
Letters of Administration
Formal authority issued by a probate court or similar body authorizing a person to administer an estate.
Such records are especially important when no will survives, because they may identify relatives, sureties and the person selected to settle the estate.
Next of Kin
A legal or descriptive term for the nearest relatives according to the rules or context being applied.
Its meaning is not universal. The person called “next of kin” in one type of record may not be the person who inherits a particular property under another legal rule.
Personal Estate / Personal Property
Property other than real property or land, broadly including money, goods, livestock, furnishings, debts owed to the deceased and other movable assets.
Historical legal systems may classify property differently, so the original terminology should be preserved when possible.
Probate
The legal process by which a deceased person’s will and estate are handled under the authority of a court or other competent body.
Genealogists often use “probate records” broadly for the entire estate file, including wills, administrations, inventories, accounts, bonds and related proceedings.
Real Property
Land and interests attached to land, as distinguished in many legal systems from movable or personal property.
How land passed at death may differ from how movable property was distributed, especially in older legal systems.
Relict
An older term for a surviving widow or widower, most commonly encountered for a widow in genealogical records.
For example, “Margaret Smith, relict of John Guthrie” means Margaret was John Guthrie’s surviving spouse.
Residue / Residuary Estate
What remains of an estate after debts, expenses and specifically directed gifts have been satisfied.
A residuary beneficiary receives some or all of that remainder.
Surety
A person who guarantees another person’s performance of a legal obligation, often by signing an estate, guardian or administrator bond.
Sureties frequently came from the deceased person’s family, business circle or neighborhood, making them excellent candidates for FAN Club research.
Testator / Testatrix
A person who makes a will.
Testator traditionally refers to a man and testatrix to a woman, though modern usage often uses testator more generally.
Testament
A term associated with the disposition and administration of a deceased person’s estate.
Its exact meaning varies greatly by legal system. In Scottish records, testament dative and testament testamentar have specific historical meanings discussed below and in the Scottish section.
Will
A legal declaration stating how a person wishes property or other matters to be handled after death.
The terminology and property covered by a will have differed by jurisdiction and historical period. A surviving will is only one part of an estate record and should be read with associated probate or administration papers when available.
“Heir” Does Not Automatically Mean “Eldest Son”
Nor does it necessarily mean “only surviving child,” “executor,” “next of kin,” or “the person who received everything.” Those are different legal and genealogical concepts.
In historical land records, a person may be heir to one estate while another relative receives movable property under a will or testament. An heir’s identity can also depend on the destination of the property, marriage settlements, entails, local inheritance law and whether earlier heirs survived.
When a record uses the word heir, preserve the full wording—especially phrases such as heir apparent, heir of line, heir male, heir portioner or heir in special—rather than reducing all of them to the same relationship.
Testament Testamentar vs. Testament Dative
Historical Scottish estate records use terminology that does not map perfectly onto modern English or American “will versus probate” language.
A testament testamentar includes a deceased person’s testamentary instructions or latter will together with the estate proceedings preserved in the testament.
A testament dative generally concerns an estate where an executor was appointed through legal process rather than acting under an effective testamentary nomination. It may still contain extremely rich genealogical information, including inventories, debts, executors and family relationships.
The exact form and procedure changed over time, so the record itself—and the court that created it—should always be identified before interpreting the terminology.
Some of the best genealogical clues appear in the documents people skip: inventories, executor accounts, receipts, bonds, creditor lists, guardianship papers and distributions. A person who is not mentioned in the will may appear elsewhere in the estate file, and repeated witnesses, sureties or creditors may expose an extended family network.
Scottish Records & Practices
Scottish Records Speak Their Own Language
Scottish genealogy frequently leads into vocabulary that has no neat modern equivalent. Parish registers, sasines, retours, charters, testaments and burgh records describe relationships and property within the legal systems of their own time.
Understanding those terms can make the difference between simply recognizing a Guthrie name and understanding what that Guthrie was actually doing in the record.
Banns of Marriage
Public notice of an intended marriage, traditionally proclaimed before the marriage took place.
A record of banns is evidence of an intended marriage, but it does not by itself prove that the marriage actually occurred. Some Scottish parish registers record the proclamation, marriage, or both.
Barony
In historical Scotland, lands could be erected into a barony, creating a territorial and legal arrangement associated with the landholding.
A Scottish territorial barony should not automatically be interpreted as a peerage. References to a “baron” or “barony” must be read in their historical landholding context.
Burgess
A person admitted to the privileges of a Scottish burgh. Burgess status could carry commercial, civic and legal rights and obligations.
Admission records may name a father, father-in-law, master, trade or other person through whom the applicant qualified, making burgess rolls particularly useful genealogically.
Charter
A formal written grant or confirmation of lands, rights, privileges or other interests.
Scottish charters can identify spouses, heirs, prior holders, property descriptions and conditions of succession. A royal confirmation may refer back to an earlier grant that occurred on a different date.
Commissary Court
A Scottish court with jurisdiction over matters that included testaments and other causes, particularly after the Reformation.
Commissary-court records are a major source for historical Scottish estate research and survive for a number of regional jurisdictions.
Feu
A form of heritable landholding under which land was held in return for continuing obligations, typically including payment of feu-duty.
A person could hold heritable possession of lands in feu while another person or institution retained the superiority.
Feuar
The person holding land under a feu arrangement.
The feuar could possess and transmit a heritable interest in the property while remaining subject to the rights of the superior and the conditions of the feu.
Fiar
A person holding the fee or heritable interest in property, particularly where another person retained a liferent.
Thus a son described as fiar may already hold the underlying heritable right even though his father or mother continues to possess or enjoy the property for life.
Heir Portioner
One of two or more heirs—often daughters—who succeed to portions of an estate when the inheritance is divided rather than passing to one sole heir.
The term is genealogically important because it can explain why property later appears in several families through marriage.
Instrument of Sasine
The formal record made by a notary documenting the act by which possession of land was given under the historical Scottish system.
Instruments of sasine may identify the new possessor, predecessor, spouse, superior, attorney, witnesses and precise lands involved.
Laird
A conventional Scottish designation for a substantial landed proprietor, often associated with a particular estate.
Laird was not a peerage rank. Genealogists should avoid converting every territorial designation “of [place]” into a noble title.
Liferent
The right to use, possess or receive the income from property for the duration of a person’s life without necessarily owning the underlying heritable fee.
A widow, parent or spouse may therefore appear in possession while another person is the fiar.
Old Parish Registers (OPRs)
The surviving registers of the established Church of Scotland recording baptisms or births, proclamations or marriages, and in some parishes burials or deaths before statutory civil registration.
Coverage varies dramatically by parish and period. Missing entries may reflect lost registers, gaps in recording, nonconformity, failure to register an event, or other causes.
Precept of Clare Constat
An instrument by which a superior recognized that it was clear that a named person was heir to a deceased vassal and authorized the process leading to the heir’s entry to the lands.
These records can be exceptionally useful because they may state the predecessor, heir and property relationship explicitly.
Precept of Sasine
Authority directing that a person be given possession of land, often following a charter or other conveyance.
It should not be confused with the later instrument of sasine, which records the act of giving possession.
Retour
The formal return recording the findings of an inquiry or service concerning an heir’s right to succeed to lands or other heritable property.
A retour may explicitly identify the deceased predecessor, the heir and the relationship between them.
Sasine
Historically, the legal act of giving possession of heritable property under Scots law.
Genealogists often use the word more broadly for the surviving record of that transaction. Sasines can provide crucial evidence of succession, marriage, settlements and property transfers.
Register of Sasines
A system for recording instruments relating to transfers and interests in heritable property.
Sasine registers are especially valuable for reconstructing landholding families because they may link several generations through sales, inheritances, marriage provisions and other transactions.
Statutory Registration
Scotland’s system of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths, introduced in 1855.
Statutory certificates generally contain much richer identifying information than many earlier parish entries, including details that may identify parents, occupations and residences.
Superior / Superiority
Under historical Scottish feudal landholding, the superior held the superior interest from whom another person held land, while superiority describes that superior right or relationship.
Holding the superiority of an estate is not the same thing as occupying or possessing it. This distinction is critical when reconstructing territorial Guthrie families.
Tack
A lease or letting of land, property or certain rights for a specified term and under stated conditions.
The holder, called a tacksman, may appear territorially associated with a property without owning the heritable estate.
Testament Dative
A Scottish testament in which estate administration proceeded through an executor appointed by legal authority rather than solely under an effective testamentary nomination by the deceased.
It may contain an inventory, debts, executor information and valuable family connections even though it is not a conventional “will.”
Testament Testamentar
A Scottish testament containing testamentary directions or a latter will made by the deceased, together with the associated estate proceedings preserved in the record.
Its structure and legal significance should be interpreted according to the court and period involved.
Umquhile / Umwhile
An older Scots term meaning late or deceased.
Thus “umquhile John Guthrie of Colliston” means “the late John Guthrie of Colliston,” not a place, title or additional personal name.
Scotland Changed Its New Year Before It Changed Calendars
Beginning in 1600, Scotland officially numbered the year from 1 January rather than beginning it on 25 March.
That did not mean Scotland had already adopted the Gregorian calendar. Scotland remained on the Julian calendar with the rest of Great Britain until the calendar change in 1752.
This distinction matters when comparing Scottish records with contemporary English or continental records. Always preserve the date as recorded before converting or normalizing it.
Superiority · Possession · Liferent · Fee Are Different Interests
Several people can appear connected to the same Scottish property at the same time without holding the same legal interest.
One person may hold the superiority; another may possess the lands in feu; a surviving parent may enjoy a liferent; and the next generation may already hold the underlying fee as fiar.
For genealogy, that means the phrase “of [place]” must be read beside the actual charter, sasine, retour or other land record whenever possible.
Land & Property
Land Records Can Rebuild a Family One Neighbor at a Time
Property records are among genealogy’s most valuable sources. They can place a person in a specific location, identify a spouse, reveal an inheritance, connect generations, name adjoining landowners and document migration from one community to another.
The terminology differs by jurisdiction and land system, so this section focuses primarily on terms commonly encountered in British North American and United States records. Scottish landholding vocabulary is covered separately above.
Aliquot Part
A fractional subdivision of a rectangular public-land survey section, such as the north half, southeast quarter or northwest quarter of the southeast quarter.
These descriptions allow land to be located without using the natural landmarks found in metes-and-bounds descriptions.
Bounty Land
Land, or a right to obtain land, granted by a government as a reward for qualifying military service.
Bounty-land applications and warrants can contain valuable military, age, residence, widowhood and family information.
Chain of Title
The sequence of transfers showing how ownership or another property interest passed from one holder to the next.
Reconstructing the chain can reveal inheritances, marriages, migrations and previously unidentified relatives.
Deed
A legal instrument used to transfer or document an interest in real property.
A deed commonly identifies the grantor transferring the interest and the grantee receiving it, together with the property description and consideration.
Dower
A widow’s legal interest in some portion of her deceased husband’s real property under certain historical legal systems.
Because a wife’s dower rights could affect a land sale, she may appear in a deed releasing or acknowledging those rights even when she was not otherwise named as an owner.
Fee Simple
A broad form of inheritable ownership in real property, generally allowing the owner to possess, transfer and devise the property subject to applicable law.
Historical deeds may use language such as heirs and assigns forever in describing such interests.
Grant
A transfer or award of land or another property right, often from a government, proprietor or other authority.
A land grant may be only one stage in a longer process involving applications, warrants, surveys and final patents.
Grantee
The person or entity receiving an interest in property through a deed or grant.
Deed indexes are commonly divided into grantor and grantee indexes, so searching both can reveal transactions missed by searching only one side.
Grantor
The person or entity transferring an interest in property.
When several family members appear as grantors in the same transaction, investigate whether the property had descended to them through inheritance.
Homestead
In United States federal-land research, often refers to land obtained under homestead legislation by meeting requirements concerning residence, improvement and other conditions.
Homestead files can contain applications, testimony, naturalization evidence, residence statements and information about family members.
Land Patent
The document by which a government conveys public land into private ownership after the required process has been completed.
A patent usually marks the end of the public-land acquisition process, not necessarily the beginning of the settler’s presence on the land.
Lease
An agreement granting the right to occupy or use property for a specified period under stated conditions.
A person repeatedly described at a place may therefore be a tenant rather than the owner of the land.
Metes and Bounds
A system of describing land by directions, distances, neighboring properties and natural or constructed landmarks.
A description might follow a creek, marked tree, road, stone or adjoining landowner around the property boundary.
Mortgage
A legal arrangement in which real property secures repayment of a debt.
Mortgage records may identify spouses, residences, business relationships and property retained for many years rather than sold outright.
Patent
In land records, a formal government grant conveying title or another legally recognized interest in public land.
Do not confuse a land patent with a patent for an invention; the surrounding record context makes the meaning clear.
Plat
A map or plan showing the surveyed boundaries and divisions of land.
Plats can reveal neighboring property owners, roads, waterways and the physical relationship between households that appear separately in written records.
Quarter Section
In the United States rectangular survey system, one quarter of a standard 640-acre section—nominally about 160 acres.
Quarter sections can themselves be divided into smaller aliquot parts.
Quitclaim Deed
A deed by which a person transfers whatever interest they may have in property without necessarily guaranteeing the quality or extent of that title.
Quitclaim deeds among relatives can be particularly revealing when heirs are consolidating interests in inherited land.
Range
In the United States rectangular survey system, a north-south column of townships numbered east or west of a principal meridian.
A complete public-land description typically combines township, range and section information.
Section
A standard unit in the United States rectangular public-land survey system, nominally one square mile or 640 acres.
A township is typically divided into 36 numbered sections.
Survey
The measurement and description of land boundaries.
Historical surveys may predate the final land grant or patent and can identify an occupant or claimant before formal title was completed.
Township
In the United States rectangular survey system, a surveyed block generally six miles square and divided into 36 sections.
The word township can also describe a civil-government unit in some states, so context matters.
Land Warrant
Authorization allowing a person to obtain or locate a stated quantity of land, often issued before the survey or final patent.
Warrants may be based on purchase, military service or another entitlement and could sometimes be assigned to another person.
Follow the Land Backward and Forward
One deed tells you about one transaction. A chain of title can tell you the history of a family.
Search for how your ancestor acquired the property and how it left the family. If several children or spouses later sign deeds transferring interests in the same tract, you may be looking at land inherited from a common parent even when no surviving will states the relationship.
Land Records Can Reveal a Woman’s Identity
In jurisdictions where a wife held dower or other marital rights, she may appear in a deed because those rights had to be released before the property could be transferred freely.
A separate acknowledgment may name her even when the main body of the deed focuses almost entirely on her husband. In other transactions, married daughters and their husbands may appear together when inherited family land is sold.
Pay attention to adjoining owners, witnesses, surveyors, buyers and sellers. Families often migrated together, purchased adjoining tracts, witnessed one another’s deeds and married into neighboring households. A boundary description naming the man next door may eventually explain who your ancestor’s daughter married.
People in Historical Records
Read Historical Labels in Their Own Time
Census takers, courts, churches and government officials often classified people by citizenship, residence, occupation, economic condition or legal status.
Some of those labels look familiar today but carried very different meanings when the record was created. Understanding the historical usage can prevent a surprisingly large number of genealogical misunderstandings.
Alien
Historically, a person who was not a citizen or subject of the country in which they were residing.
In immigration and naturalization records, alien is a legal-status term, not a description of ethnicity or ancestry.
Apprentice
A person formally or informally learning a trade or craft under the direction of a master.
Apprenticeship records may name the apprentice’s father, guardian, hometown, master, occupation and the term of service, making them valuable substitutes when other family records are missing.
Boarder / Lodger
A person living in another household in exchange for payment or under another residential arrangement, rather than necessarily being a member of the household family.
Do not assume a boarder or lodger is unrelated, however. Widowed relatives, cousins, workers and future spouses can all appear under these labels.
Denizen
In historical British usage, a foreign-born person granted certain rights of a subject by royal authority without necessarily acquiring every right associated with natural-born status.
The legal meaning varied over time and should not be treated as identical to modern citizenship or ordinary naturalization.
Emigrant
A person described from the viewpoint of the country or place they are leaving.
The same individual can be a Scottish emigrant and an American immigrant.
Freeman
A person recognized as possessing certain civic, occupational or legal rights within a particular community or jurisdiction.
The precise meaning varies widely. In a burgh, city, guild or colonial record, being admitted a freeman may carry specific commercial or political privileges and may reveal how the person qualified for them.
Freeholder
A person holding a legally recognized freehold interest in land.
Depending on time and place, freeholder status could affect voting rights, taxation, jury service or eligibility for public office.
Immigrant
A person described from the viewpoint of the country or place they are entering to reside.
Passenger arrival does not automatically prove permanent immigration. Some people traveled repeatedly, returned home or continued onward to another destination.
Indentured Servant
A person contractually bound to work for another for a stated period, often in exchange for transportation, maintenance, training or another benefit.
Conditions varied greatly by place and period. Indentured service was a distinct legal arrangement and should not be confused with chattel slavery.
Inmate
Historically, a person residing within an institution or, in some older records, simply another household or dwelling.
The word does not automatically mean prisoner. Census records may use it for residents of hospitals, almshouses, schools, asylums, poorhouses and other institutions.
Master
A term that may describe the qualified practitioner under whom an apprentice trained, an employer, the head of a household, or another person exercising recognized authority.
In Scottish university and clerical records, Master can also represent an academic designation, so context is essential.
Naturalization
The legal process by which a person acquires citizenship or subject status after birth.
Naturalization records can identify birthplaces, immigration dates, residences, spouses and children, but the required process and surviving records differ greatly by country and historical period.
Pauper
Historically, a person receiving or qualifying for public or parish poor relief.
Poor-law records may be unexpectedly rich genealogical sources, recording settlement rights, birthplaces, spouses, children, disabilities, employment history and relatives expected to provide support.
Patronymic
A name derived from a person’s father or male ancestor rather than necessarily functioning as a fixed hereditary surname.
Patronymic naming systems can cause the apparent surname to change from one generation to the next. Researchers should understand the naming custom used in the relevant language and place.
Resident / Residence
A person living in a particular place, or the place where a person was recorded as living.
Residence does not necessarily establish birthplace, citizenship, legal settlement, landownership or permanent domicile.
Servant
A broad historical occupational and household term for a person employed in the service of another.
It does not necessarily mean domestic servant. Farm workers, skilled employees, household staff and others can all appear under the label depending on the record and period.
Settlement / Settlement Rights
In historical poor-law systems, a person’s recognized legal connection to the parish or locality responsible for providing relief.
Settlement examinations and removal records can document migration, employment, marriage and family relationships in remarkable detail.
Sojourner
A person temporarily residing in a place rather than being regarded as permanently settled there.
The term appears in church and civil records and can be an important clue that the person came from another parish or community.
Subject
In monarchical legal systems, a person owing allegiance to the sovereign and recognized within the sovereign’s jurisdiction.
Historical British records frequently use subject where modern researchers might expect the word citizen. The concepts should not be assumed to be legally identical.
Yeoman
A historical status or occupational description often associated with a working landholder or farmer of a degree of independence and standing below the gentry.
The meaning changed by period and locality. It should not be translated automatically into either “poor farmer” or “gentleman.”
Inmate Does Not Necessarily Mean Prisoner
Nor does alien imply anything beyond foreign legal status, servant necessarily mean household maid, or pauper function merely as an insult.
Record keepers used these words within particular administrative and legal systems. Interpret the label according to who created the record, why it was created, and what the term meant at that place and time.
Departure → Arrival → Residence → Citizenship
These events may generate completely different records. A passenger list might document arrival, a census later establishes residence, a declaration or petition records part of a naturalization process, and a land record may show where the family finally settled.
Do not force all of those events into one presumed immigration date. Families also migrated in stages—from Scotland to Ireland, one American colony to another, or through several states before reaching their final destination.
Terms such as burgess, freeman, yeoman, gentleman, servant or pauper can tell us something about a person’s legal, economic or community position—but they should not be converted automatically into modern social classes. Track how the same person is described across several records and over time.
Still Stumped?
Sometimes One Strange Word Holds Up the Whole Record
Historical vocabulary is enormous, and no glossary can anticipate every occupation, legal phrase, Scottish expression, DNA term or odd bit of record-keeper shorthand a genealogist will encounter.
Two Especially Useful Word-Finders
Archaic Occupations
A handy glossary when a census, certificate or historical record describes someone as a cordwainer, heckler, baxter, bleacher, wright—or another occupation that has vanished from everyday vocabulary.
Search Archaic Occupations ↗ External resourceDictionaries of the Scots Language
Particularly useful for words and spellings encountered in older Scottish legal, church, burgh and property records. Search both Older Scots and later Scots usage.
Search the Scots Dictionaries ↗ External resource · Dictionaries of the Scots LanguageWhat Term Keeps Stumping You?
Guthrie Genealogy readers encounter records from many places, centuries and legal systems. If you have run across a word, abbreviation or historical expression that sent you searching for an explanation, chances are another researcher has wondered about it too.
Send in the terms that still have you stumped, or suggest useful additions you think belong in this glossary. Especially welcome are words found in original records where the modern meaning is unclear or misleading.