{"id":3303,"date":"2012-01-26T12:55:19","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T17:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/?p=3303"},"modified":"2012-02-17T14:39:22","modified_gmt":"2012-02-17T19:39:22","slug":"say-and-spell-what-tricky-research-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/2012\/01\/26\/say-and-spell-what-tricky-research-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Say (and spell) What?: Tricky research words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genealogy words can be tricky—ahnentafels<\/em>, anyone?—and words that look or sound alike don’t help much.<\/p>\n

In order to facilitate communications and understanding—and humor, of course—we’ve collected a few of the most frequent mix-ups we’ve encountered, with definitions and examples:<\/p>\n

____________<\/p>\n

\u00a0Cavalry<\/em> — an army component mounted on horseback. Ex: Company M of the first regiment of the Iowa volunteer cavalry mustered out of Davenport on September 12, 1861.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mt. Calvary<\/em> — \u00a0A cemetery in Davenport named after a hill in Jerusalem. Ex: Antoine LeClaire is buried at Mt. Calvary cemetery.<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, cavalry can be buried at Mt. Calvary, but not the other way around, even if the horses are really hungry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Ordinance<\/em> — a law set forth by a governmental authority; specifically a municipal regulation. Ex: Revised Ordinances of the City of Davenport. <\/em><\/p>\n

Ordnance<\/em> — military supplies including weapons, ammunition, combat vehicles, and maintenance tools and equipment. A service of the army charge with procuring, distributing, and safekeeping of ordnance. Ex: The Ordnance Museum at Rock Island Arsenal was opened to the public on July 4, 1905.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are many ordinances for ordnance in Davenport, but not—we hope—the other way around.\u00a0 Hey, we just work here!<\/strong><\/p>\n

—<\/strong><\/p>\n

Decedent <\/em>— a person who has died. Ex: Death record indexes include the name of the decedent, death date and county of death.<\/em><\/p>\n

Descendant<\/em> — A person, plant, or animal that is descended from a particular ancestor. Ex: The Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants<\/em><\/p>\n

All decedents are descendants of someone<\/em>, but not all descendants are decedents yet.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

—<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Patent <\/em>(invention) — A government authority to an individual or organization conferring a right or title, esp. the sole right to make, use, or sell some invention. Ex: The Patent and Trademark research computer is located in the Special Collections Center.<\/em><\/p>\n

Patent<\/em> (Land) —pronounced “pay-tent”—evidence of right, title, and\/or interest to a quantity of land, usually granted by a central, federal, or state government to an individual or private company.\u00a0 Ex: a Land Patent is the only form of proof of absolute title to Land in the United States of America.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

You can patent something to prove you invented it or <\/em>show a patent to prove you own a parcel of land.\u00a0 But since you can’t invent land, don’t even try patenting a patent!<\/strong><\/p>\n

—<\/strong><\/p>\n

Statute <\/em>– A written law passed by a legislative body. Ex: Revised Statutes of the Territory of Iowa<\/em><\/p>\n

Statue<\/em> – A carved or cast figure of a person or animal, esp. one that is life-size or larger. Ex: A statue of Bix Beiderbecke is located on the corner of River Drive and 4th<\/sup> Street. <\/em><\/p>\n

Statutes have been passed to regulate statues . . . but most statues don’t bother writing their legislators \u00a0about statutes regulating pigeons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

—<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tract <\/em>– An area of indefinite extent, typically a large one. A defined area of land. Ex: Land Tract books<\/em><\/p>\n

Track <\/em>– Follow the course or trail of (someone or something), typically in order to find them or note their location at various points. Ex: Using census information to track your family<\/em><\/p>\n

You can track your family by finding their patented tracts of land.\u00a0 We call that tract-tracking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

—<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/em> – A summary or statement of the contents of a book, article, or formal speech.\u00a0 \u00a0Ex: Abstracted Names from the Davenport Democrat. <\/em><\/p>\n

Extract <\/em>– A short passage taken from a piece of writing, music, or film. Ex: Extract of Sexton Records<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The names listed in our Abstracted Names index were extracted from the Davenport Democrat.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

—<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And finally, Ahnentafel<\/em>, which doesn’t sound or look like anything else, but is still a problem for many of our patrons.\u00a0 It’s the German word for ancestor tables!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ex: I want to look up my surnames using the library’s Ahnentafels, but I can’t find the books in the catalog because I can’t spell it.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0(posted by Cristina & Sarah)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Genealogy words can be tricky—ahnentafels, anyone?—and words that look or sound alike don’t help much. In order to facilitate communications and understanding—and humor, of course—we’ve collected a few of the most frequent mix-ups we’ve encountered, with definitions and examples: ____________ … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[765,1409,1410],"class_list":["post-3303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy","category-local-history","tag-fun","tag-genealogy","tag-local-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXc-Rh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3374,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions\/3374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}