{"id":9537,"date":"2015-02-02T17:08:19","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T17:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=9537"},"modified":"2024-04-12T11:35:45","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T15:35:45","slug":"how-to-use-a-dictionary-to-help-with-your-genealogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/how-to-use-a-dictionary-to-help-with-your-genealogy.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Use a Dictionary to Help with Your Genealogy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega discusses several different types of dictionaries, providing links to online versions \u2013 and shows how they can help with your family history research. <\/em>Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Have you ever started reading an old document or newspaper article about your ancestor and come across a word that made you scratch your head? Maybe there was a phrase your ancestor used in a piece of correspondence or their journal that you are curious about. I know there have been times when I come across an unfamiliar term \u2013 or even something I didn\u2019t recognize as a word \u2013 and wondered what it meant. Words and their meanings from a different era can make understanding context difficult, and can lead you to make bad assumptions and wrong conclusions. It\u2019s at times like these that you need to \u201clook it up!\u201d and break out some dictionaries.<\/p>\n

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Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 22 October 1907, page 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What dictionary might help? You\u2019d be surprised at all the different types of dictionaries that exist that can help the family historian. You may be able to pick one up inexpensively at a library book sale or used book store \u2013 or there may be a free online version.<\/p>\n

Medical Dictionaries<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did your ancestor die of the grippe or maybe ague? What\u2019s a myocardial infarction? Having a good medical dictionary at your disposal can help you better understand your ancestor\u2019s ailments and ultimately their death certificate.<\/p>\n

Medical terminology, like language itself, changes over time. So having access to definitions of archaic medical terms is very helpful.<\/p>\n

Rudy\u2019s List of Archaic Medical Terms: A Glossary of Archaic Medical Terms, Diseases and Causes of Death<\/a> is a great resource for looking up causes of death on death certificates. This website defines itself as: \u201ca collection of archaic medical terms and their old and modern definitions. The primary focus of this web site is to help decipher the Causes of Death found on Mortality Lists, Certificates of Death and Church Death Records from the 19th century and earlier.\u201d What is great about the site are the entries that include a copy of a death certificate so that you can compare the writing. While there\u2019s a benefit to using the online version, for the most up-to-date entries, you can download a copy of the glossary for a small fee.<\/p>\n

Links to other websites that explain medical terms can be found on Cyndi\u2019s List \u2013 Medical & Medicine \u2013 Diseases & Medical Terms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Riverside County Historical Courthouse in Riverside, California. Credit: Gena Philibert-Ortega.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Legal Dictionaries<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the non-attorney, legal jargon found in the court cases of our ancestors can be challenging at best. I\u2019ve had times where I wish I could call a lawyer and ask them to sit with me and explain some concepts so that I could better evaluate what a case was really about. A legal dictionary can assist you at times when you\u2019re trying to make sense of the world your ancestor lived in. The Law Dictionary<\/a> is an online version of Black\u2019s Law Dictionary<\/em>, a dictionary everyone should refer to for better understanding of legal terms.<\/p>\n

The Georgetown Law Library Digital Dictionaries: 1481-1916<\/a> provides access to a wide variety of legal dictionaries that can be browsed or searched<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Slang Dictionaries<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of my favorite dictionaries are slang dictionaries. I know it\u2019s easy to hear the phrase \u201cslang dictionary\u201d and discount it as something that is too modern to be of use when researching your family history. However, slang dictionaries have been around since the 17th century and are an excellent resource for learning about the common word usage of a particular era and how the meanings of some words have changed over time. A slang dictionary is the perfect resource to better understand early correspondence or journal entries. This type of dictionary can assist you as you read newspaper articles that utilize verbiage from a different time. It can also help when you\u2019re writing the story of your great-grandparents and want to use language and phrases from their time period.<\/p>\n

Like any dictionary, a slang dictionary can be found online and in your favorite bookstore. Digitized book websites house various reference tools including slang dictionaries. Internet Archive has the 1909 text Passing English of the Victorian Era: A Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang, and Phrase<\/a>, and the 1912 work A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Slang dictionaries from the 19th century<\/a> can also be found on Google Books.<\/p>\n

Military Dictionaries<\/strong><\/p>\n

Military dictionaries exist online and in physical book form. The DOD Dictionary of Military Terms<\/span> can be browed or searched online as well as downloaded. It\u2019s a great resource if you need to know what a beach party is or a Presidential Call-up.<\/p>\n

The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military<\/em> has a website with an index to entries. You can browse the index, but need a subscription to look at definitions.<\/p>\n

Dictionaries for specific military conflicts include the Historical Dictionary of the Korean War<\/a> by Paul M. Edwards, the Historical Dictionary of the Spanish-American War<\/a> by Donald H. Dyal, and the Historical Dictionary of World War I<\/a> by Ian V. Hogg.<\/p>\n

What dictionaries are on your bookshelf? Start your own reference collection for your personal library to help with your family history research for a better understanding your ancestors and the times they lived in.<\/p>\n

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