ROOTS Genealogical Dictionary
ROOTS
Dictionary of Genealogy & Archaic Terms
[P]
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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- PAEN
- [Heraldry] sable
with spots of or
tufts of or
- PALEOGRAPHY
- the study of ancient forms of writing
- PALATINATE
- (1) in Germany, the area west of the Rhine River
(2) a regality, a
region, usually on the frontier of a country, whose lord enjoys semi-royal
jurisdiction although still a subject and tenant-in-chief of the Crown--an
arrangement that was designed mainly to strengthen defence against invasion.
Palatinates were usually in remote areas. The best known palatinate in England
was that of Durham, whose local government was in the hands of the Bishop of
Durham until--believe it or not--1836. Chester and Lancaster were also
palatinates, and Kent briefly. The Count
Palatine was the ruler of the palatinate.
- PALATINE
- people from the Palatinate area in the Rhineland of Germany. In 1688,
Louis XIV of France began persecuting German Protestants from the west bank of
the Rhine River. Queen Anne of England helped a group to come to America in
1708. More than 2000 arrived in New York in 1710 and settled along the Hudson
and Mohawk Rivers. Others settled in Pennsylvania. The term also applied to
the two palatine
counties (marches) of Chester and Durham in England.
- PALSGRAF
- see COUNT PALATINE
- PANNAGE
- the privilege or money paid to a lord permit swine or other animals to feed in a wood
- PAPILLONY
- [Heraldic] like fish scales
- PARAGE
- see TENURE
EN PARAGE
- PARASANG
- [Persian] a unit of length of 30 stadia,
or about three miles
- PARENS MEUS
- [Latin, my relative] something uncertain -- a distant cousin,
or a granduncle -- when you know that there may be a connection, but you're
not sure which one.
- PARENTES
- [Latin] kinsmen
- PARISH
- per "A Hornbook of VA History", "When the first English settlers came to
Virginia in 1607 they followed the familiar patterns of the Church of England
and established parishes that served as local units of ecclesiastical and
community organization. ---In Colonial Virginia the General Assembly
established parishes and fixed their boundaries, often at the same time that
it created or altered counties. A decade after independence, on 16 Jan 1786,
the General Assembly passed Thomas Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious
Freedom, ending state-enforced support for the formally established church and
its parishes." In Louisiana, parishes are still a secular unit of
government, equivalent to a county.
- PAROCHUS
- rector/pastor
- PASCHAL
- pertaining to Easter
- PASCUARIUM
- payment for pasturage
- PASSENGER LIST
- list of names and information about passengers that came to the United
States on ships.
- PATENT
- an instrument making a conveyance of public lands; also : the land so
conveyed
- PATHMASTER
- An archaic term for a person responsible for maintaining a particular road
or roads in the town
- PATRIARCH
- the individual heading one of the five great jurisdictions of the Catholic
Church, including Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria,
although the pope in Rome did not assume the title of patriarch
- PATRICIAN
- the group of elite families, including any adopted members, in ancient
Roman society. Although the title changed over the breadth of the Roman
period, it generally, at least in the beginning deferred a sort of noble
status on its members. thus it differentiated the nobility from the
common man, or plebeians. The honor was
hereditary, and could only be conferred by the emperor or the Senate.
Likewise, an individual and his family could be demoted for criminal acts or
failure to carry out civic responsibilities.
- PATRINUS
- [Latin] godfather (sponsor)
- PATRIOTIC SERVICE
- [American] having participated in the American Revolutionary War,
exclusive of military service. Patriotic Service includes: Collector of
Provisions; Defender of Fort or Frontier; Delegate to a Continental Congress
or to a Provincial Congress; Express Rider, Fence Viewer; Furnishing a
substitute, Gunsmith who gave his services; Inspector of provisions;
Legislator; Member of the Boston Tea Party; and many others.
- PATRITIUS
- [Latin, paternal]
- PATRONYM
- a surname derived from a paternal ancestor,
such as "Williamson, the son of William". See also
matronym.
- PATRUUS
- [Latin] brother or half-brother of one's father, i.e., uncle
- PAUCIS HEBDOMADIBUS [Latin]
- few weeks
- PEASANT
- the lowest feudal class
- PEDAGIUM
- a toll to use a highway or bridge
- PEDIGREE
- recorded ancestry or line of descent
- PEDIGREE CHART
- a more-or-less standard genealogical form for recording several
generations of one's ancestry
- PEEL
- a long handled broad shovel used for putting bread into an oven.
- PEER
- A holder of a noble title. See PEERAGE
- PEERAGE
- Dukes,
earls,
counts,
viscounts, marquesses, barons, archbishops, bishops and judges. Baronets are
not members of the peerage. -- Renia Simmons (edited)
- PENCE
- a coin, unit of British currency, symbolized as d
- PENTHEROS
- [Greek] father-in-law
- PEPPERCORN RENT
- Peppercorn rents originated during the Middle ages in Britain. When a
piece of property was deeded over as a reward for good service (or because the
tenant was a favorite of the overlord) a nominal rent was charged as a
reminder that the tenant didn't own it outright. A single peppercorn (or a
single rose i.e. rose rents) was among the most popular forms of this style of
"quit
rent" but there were various other curious forms of payment, such as a
frog, a roast pork dinner or the donation of a petticoat to a poor woman. The
Feast of St. Michael or Michaelmas (September 29) is one of the standard days
for paying rent or settling debts.
- PER
- [Latin] for
- PER STIRPES
- [Latin] see STIRPES
- PERCHE
- a measure of about 50 feet; as an area of measure it was about 1/4 acre
- PERSONAL PROPERTY
- property other than land
- PERSONALTY
- [English] personal property, q.v. above
- PER STIRPES
- [Latin] a method of dividing an estate so that children act as a group,
rather than individually, taking what their deceased ancestor
was entitled to.
- PHEON
- [Heraldric] an arrow with a flat barbed head
- PICTURA
- a portion of a field
- PIERCED
- [Heraldic] hole in the center
- PINFOLD
- a place for confining impounded horses or cattle
- PITTANCER
- an official of a religious house whose responsibility it is to distribute
charitable gifts or allowances of food
- PLANTAGENET
- a surname commonly applied to members of the English Royal House of
England between 1154 and 1485. Members of that house were descended from the
union between Geoffrey, Count of Anjou and Maine, and the Empress Matilda,
[1102-1167] daughter of the English King, Henry I "Beauclerc". Although the
practice is well-established, it has little historical justification. The name
Plantagenet seems to have originated as a sobriquet or nickname for Count
Geoffrey. It has variously been explained as referring to his practice of
wearing a sprig or branch of yellow broom (Latin: [planta] genista; Old
French:
plante genet in his helm, or more probably to his habit of planting
brooms to improve his hunting cover. "Plantagenet" was not, by any means, a
hereditary surname and Geoffrey's progeny remained without one for more than
300 years, although surnames became common outside the Royal Family. Henry II
Curtmantle FitzEmpress [1133-1189] [son of Geoffrey and Matilda The Empress]
and his own sons, Richard I and John I, are now generally styled by historians
as the Angevin (from Anjou) kings. For want of a better name, their
successors, notably Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, and Richard II
are still described as Plantagenets. Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI may
properly be called the House of Lancaster; while Edward IV, Edward V and
Richard III constitute the monarchs of the House of York. The first official
use of the surname Plantagenet by any descendant of Count Geoffrey was in
1460, when Richard, 3rd Duke of York [1411-1460], claimed the throne in the
name of "Richard Plantaginet." [N.B. Yes, there was no standard spelling in
English in 1460.] Richard, 3rd Duke of York, was Protector of England, Earl of
March and Ulster, and Earl of Cambridge. The legitimate male issue of Count
Geoffrey and Matilda The Empress became extinct with the death, in 1499, of
Edward, [1475-1499] 18th Earl of Warwick, grandson of Richard, 3rd Duke of
York. He was the son of George [1449-1478], Duke of Clarence, who allegedly
met his end in the Tower of London as did his son, but George was supposedly
drowned in the famous butt of Malmsey. The Madeira Wine, "Duke of Clarence" is
named after this event. Henry VII resented Edward, 18th Earl of Warwick's
proximity to the throne and he was executed at the Tower of London on 28 Nov
1499. -- Spencer Hines (edited)
- PLEBEIAN
- a class of Roman citizen, individually called plebs, consisting of
those not in the upper, noble patrician class.
Although it generally was made up of the middle and low classes, some plebs
were wealthy and influential. Over time the distinction between
patricians and plebeians became minor, although some public offices were
restricted to one class or the other. For example, plebeians had their
own tribune,
ædile and council.
- PLOUGHGATE
- A ploughgate or plowland, also known as a carucate
equaled 8 oxgangs
or bovates.
A uniform (clerks) ploughgate appeared to be around 104 acres, but it could
range from 60 to 120 acres. This meaasure was based on the amount of land a
team of eight oxen could plow in a year
- POLL
- a head count. A poll tax is a tax in each individual.
- POLLED DEED
- a poll deed is a deed
made by one person or party only, to which he alone is bound, and executed
only by himself. The name arose as a result of the practice of cutting the top
or side edge of the deed
in a straight line (polled) as opposed to an indenture
(deed
indented) which cut the parchment or paper in a notched or saw-tooth edge.
This was done as a practical matter of distinction. The deed poll of trust
would record the transfer of title to real property via trustee.
- PONE
- a writ to remove an action from a shire
court to the royal court
- PONTAGE
- a bridge toll
- PONTIFEX
- One of the high priests of the Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs. This was
a important position in the Ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians
until 254 BC. A distinctly religious office under the early Roman Republic.
The head priest was called the pontifex maximus. This rank gradually
became politicized until, beginning with Augustus, it was subsumed into the
Imperial office. Its last use with reference to the emperors is in
inscriptions of Gratian. From this office, today the Roman
Catholic Pope if sometimes called the Pontiff, derived from the Latin
pontifex.
- POPULATION SCHEDULE
- a completed population census
questionnaire
- PORPHYROGENITUS
- [Latin, purple born] A Byzantine appellation for those
offspring born while their father was emperor
- PORT REEVE
- the chief magistrate in a mercantile town
- PORTCULLIS
- a heavy timbered grill that can be raised or lowered at the gate of a
castle
- PORTER
- door keeper; one of the minor orders in a church
- POSTHUMOUS
- born after the father's death
- POSTULANT
- an individual seeking to enter a religious order
- POTENT
- [Heraldry] a fur
surface, also called 'meirré', composed of patches which are supposed to represent crutch heads; they
are always alternately argent
and azure,
unless otherwise specially mentioned. Counter potent is a fur
differing from potent in the arrangement of the patches.
- POURPARTY
- The division among partners of lands which were formerly held in common.
- PRÆCENDE
- [Latin previous, preceding]
- PRÆ
- [Latin] in front, before, through
- PRÆFECTUS
- [Latin, one who stands in front] a Roman official appointed
by a magistrate, for a number of functions including commanding troops,
distributing food, administering pensions, guarding a treasury, governor of a
province, etc.
- PRÆFECT URBIS
- [Latin] the Mayor of Rome
- PRÆFECTURE
- In late Roman times, one of four great sections -- Gaul, Italy, Illyricum
and the East, under which all of the provinces/dioceses
were governed
- PRÆTOR
- [Latin, the one who goes before] a Roman magistrate, responsible
for the administration of justice. Their role changed over time, and the
number authorized varied from a single one in the 360s BC, to one for each
province under the Republic, up to 18 under the Empire. A prætor could have six bodyguards, and was entitled
to wear a purple-bordered toga. The prætor was responsible for spending money on games
and other public works. There were eight prætors in the East, and were named by the Senate
ten years in advance so they could save enough funds to later hold the office,
from which funds solely came from their own pockets. Based on the Lex
Villia Annalis (181 BC) and Lex Cornelia Annalis (81 BC), a prætor had to be at least 39 years of age entering
the office.
- PRÆTOR URBANIS
- [Latin] the prætor of the City of Rome
- PREBENDARY
- a cathedral official, usually a member of the chapter who drew a prebend,
or salary, from the cathedral
- PRECARIUM
- a charter whereby property is received on the basis of an annual payment,
which may be a payment in kind
- PRECENTER
- a religious official in charge of making sure there are the proper number
of books for the liturgy
- PREFIX TITLE
- precedes one's name. (i.e.: Dr. or Mrs.)
- PREMONSTRATENSIAN
- a reform order of clergy in NE France formed in the 12th C., and adhering
stricly to the doctrines of St. Augustine. They were a stricter form of
the Austin Friars. Also known
as the White Canons.
- PRETENDER
- in terms of a title or position, a pretender is one who claims that
position, but who has no right to it. The term is typically derogatory,
used by those claim the right against those to whom they deny it. A historical
"Pretender" was the Scottish Bonnie Prince Charlie.
- PRIDIE/PRIEDE
- [Latin, the previous day]
- PRIESTER
- any kind of priest
- PRIMARY RECORD
- a record created at the time of the event (birth, death, marriage, etc.),
as opposed to records written years later
- PRIME
- part of the monastic timetable for liturgy, called
horarium. This worship service
typically occurred between 7am-8am in winter and 5am-6am in summer
- PRIMOGENITOR
- the earliest known ancestor or forefather
- PRIMOGENITURE
- the right of the eldest child (especially the son) to inherit the estate
of both parents.
- PRINCE
- the male member of a royal family. Also, rulers of autonomous
states, subject to the overlordship of a king
- PRIOR
- (1) a superior in a priory, whether an abbot, provost
or dean
- (2) second-in-command of an abbey
- PRIORY
- a monastic house headed by a prior. Typically a
priory was smaller than an abbey.
- PRISAGE
- a toll levied on wines
- PRIVY SEAL
- the personal seal of the king, used for less formal letters and documents
- PROAVUS
- [Latin] great-grandfather
- PROBATE
- legal establishment of the validity of a will
- PROBST
- provost,
a clerical office
- PROCESSIONER
- used in colonial Virginia and Kentucky describing a surveyor of sorts. His
job was to decide upon property boundaries to mark, and describe them in the
processioner's book. Each four years all landowners in a community would ride
or walk along the boundaries of all their plantations. Surveyors who
accompanied this procession would redraw any disputed lines. This custom came
from England to Virginia as a means of avoiding disputes arising from poor
surveys or loss of boundary markers such as trees.
- PROCONSUL
- a Roman magistrate, formerly a consul, used to extend the command of a
consul beyond his normal term under a prolonged war. In later times,
proconsuls governed important provinces, "as if they were consuls".
- PROCTOR
- legal representatives, usually associated with the
ecclesiastical courts,
although he sometimes participated in the king's council. He was the
individual responsible for preparing cases. He was the equivalent of an
attorney.
- PROCURANT
- [Latin] stand instead of , i.e., a proxy
- PROCURATOR
- a Roman official originally administering large amounts of money or
agricultural domains. Later they were responsible for taxation in the
provinces. Ultimately, as in 41 in Judea, they were the governors of the
provinces, or were the chief ministers of the Roman government
- PROCURATOREM
- [Latin] in behalf of
- PROGENY
- children
- PROGENITOR
- an originator of a line of descent, frequently used in reference to the
immigrant ancestor.
- PROPINQUUS
- [Latin] a relative in the next generation down, such as a nephew or
niece
- PROSOPOGRAPHY
- the study of collective biography, for individuals of a certain group
(social class, profession, time frame, geographic origin, etc.). By
accumulating data on individuals in a group, one learns more about the
group. The term may have been coined by anthropologists but it is widely
used among medieval historians, particularly social historians. - Nathaniel
Taylor -- [email protected]
- PROVED
- a will taken to court by the executor
and sworn to by one or more of the witnesses. It is evidence that the testator
had died before the date of probate
(proving). The witnesses had to appear to verify that they had seen the
testator sign the will, not that they knew what the will said. After a will
was proved to the court's satisfaction, the executor and administrator (if
any) were authorized to carry it out. They could sell, divide, rent, or
otherwise dispose of property under the provisions of the will. -- Kathleen
Much
- PROVOST
-
- A university administrator of high rank.
- The highest official in certain cathedrals or collegiate churches.
- The keeper of a prison.
- The chief magistrate of certain Scottish cities.
- PROXIMO
- [Latin] a date in the following month
- PURPARTY
- see POURPARTY
-
PURPESTURE
- land illicitly obtained from another
- PURPURE
- [Heraldry] purple, or represented in black-and-white as the diagonal lines
from sinister chief
corner
- PYTEL
- a small field or enclosure
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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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