Add These Books to Your Genealogy Library to Save Time
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Video transcript (lightly edited for clarity):
Today we’re going to talk about which books I think you should have in your library.
They are books I use all the time, mainly for the purpose of making you aware of terminology and to be able to save you time in your genealogical research.
About maybe a week, two weeks ago, I was sent a document and asked, “What is this?” And there’s pieces to this.
It looks like a list of petite jury for the court of … whatever, May of 1772. This is a Hardy County, Virginia document. Remember that Hardy County is now in West Virginia.
And I actually know what this is, but let’s pretend I don’t and go through the process of trying to figure out what it is.
So the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to go – because obviously this is a court, therefore, it's legal. So therefore, it's law.
Black's Law Dictionary
I’m going to go to my Black’s Law Dictionary, 3rd edition and I’m going to look up first the word “petite jury.” And when I look it up, it doesn’t exist in the dictionary, which seems pretty strange.
And then it dawns on me, maybe what I should do is look up the word “jury”, because that’s what this is.
And when you go to Black’s Law Dictionary in the 3rd edition, it talks about a jury as a certain number of men selected according to law and sworn to inquire of certain matters of fact and declare the truth upon evidence to be laid before them.
But this is a petite jury, so what does that mean?
A petite jury is the ordinary jury of 12 men for the trial of a civil or criminal action so-called to distinguish it from a grand jury.
A petite jury is a body of 12 men impaneled and sworn in in a district court to try and determine by true and unanimous verdict any questions or issues of fact in any civil or criminal action or proceeding according to law and the evidence as given them in the court.
So what does that tell us about this document when we look at it again?
That tells us that this is not a list of a petite jury. My sense is this is a list from which the 12 men will be selected. In other words, these are the people who are going to be the catchment area for this petite jury for this court in May of 1772.
What I like about this document is this tells me that these are all males over the age of 21. This tells me that these people all live in Hardy County.
Recognize the first census is not until 1790. Although there may be available tax lists in 1772, I doubt it. But then, I haven’t looked. I don’t think we’re going to find personal property lists or real property lists in Hardy County until 1782.
Let’s go back and look at a grand jury since it was mentioned.
It’s a jury of inquiry who are summoned and returned by the sheriff to each session of the criminal courts and whose duty is to receive complaints and accusations in criminal cases, hear the evidence, educed on the part of the state and find bills of indictment in cases where they are satisfied a trial out to be had. They are first sworn and instructed by the court.
This is called a grand jury because it comprises a greater number of jurors than an ordinary trial jury or petite jury.
At common law, the grand jury consists of not less than 12 nor more than 23 men, and this is still the rule in many of the states.
Though in some states, the numbers are otherwise fixed by statute. Thus, in Oregon and Utah, the grand jury is composed of seven men and South Dakota not less than six, not more than eight. In Texas, 12 and Idaho, 16. In Washington, 12 to 17 and North Dakota, 16 to 23. In California, 19 and it goes on.
There are other kinds of juries that I don’t really talk about except to give you the name. The common jury, the foreign jury, the mixed jury, the pix jury… Never heard of that before. The special jury, the struck jury, and the trial jury.
Some of the common compound terms that are associated with juries are jury box, jury commissioner, jury list.
That’s what this appears to be - a panel containing the names of jurors impaneled to try a case or it contains the names of all the jurors summoned to attend the court. That’s probably what this is, people summoned to attend the court.
A jury of matrons, that would be a jury of women. Jury process, jury wheel.
This is a jury list for a court of terminer. So let me see what a court of terminer is. The court of oyer and terminer. Terminer is probably shortened down. And it says court of oyer and terminer, doesn’t it? Court of oyer and terminer May 1772.
And it’s a court for the trial of cases of treason and felony. The commissioners of assize and nisi prius are judges selected by the king and appointed and authorized under the general seal, including two of the judges at Westminster set out twice a year in most of the counties of England for trial with a jury by the county of causes then depending at the Westminster both civil and criminal. They sit by virtue of several permissions, each of which in reality constitutes them in a separate and distinct court.
That’s in English law and don’t forget this is 1772, so that’s what’s going to apply. Although I doubt anyone from Westminster will be visiting.
In American law, this name is generally used, sometimes with additions as the title or part of the title of a state court of criminal jurisdiction or of the criminal branch of a court of general jurisdiction being commonly applied to such courts as may try felonies or other high grades of crime.
Such courts exist in Delaware and Pennsylvania. They were abolished in New York and New Jersey in 1895. And there seems to be other definitions for court of oyer and terminer also.
So I think we’ve covered this pretty well in regard to what this is. This is a list of petite jurors for the court of oyer and terminer for Hardy County in May of 1772.
Notice I didn’t recognize that word oyer - although I should have remembered it - until I actually went and looked in the dictionary and it helped me.
And I also learned that a petite jury consists in this time period of 12 men and this is a list much longer than 12.
So what else can I do with this? Probably not much more except to pay attention to who all these neighbors are because this can help you define a neighborhood in a county. In other words, the neighborhood of the county.
Now I have this edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, 3rd edition, which actually is my favorite, but in my collection because I can’t stand it, I also have the 4th edition, revised.
What I like about the 4th edition is that, unlike the 3rd edition, there is a guide to pronunciation, a code of professional responsibility, a code of the judicial conduct, and minimum requirements for admission to legal practice in the United States. And this is in 1968 is when this one is written.
Of course, that’s not enough for me. I also have a copy of the 5th edition.
Now the 5th edition also has – and I’m terrible at pronunciations – but they also have an outline of Latin pronunciations and a guide to pronunciation symbols, a table of abbreviations, the time chart of the United States Supreme Court, a US Government organizational chart. And this is from 1979.
I haven’t gone much farther than that. However also in my collection, although I don’t use them just because they’re on CD, are the 1st edition in 1891 and the 2nd edition in 1910 of A Dictionary of Law from Archive CD Books.
I don’t know what happened to Archive CD Books, but I have a couple of copies of these available in addition to what’s in my library so if you want a copy of this, let me know, get in touch and we can talk about it.
What Did They Mean By That?
Now another place for you can look for this information much more simply, of course, without using Black’s Law Dictionary, which would be my first preference, is a set of genealogical dictionaries What Did They Mean By That? and More What Did They Mean By That?
And also A to Zax. I think that if you don’t want to spend much money, it’s a good starter book since it’s only $14.95.
More What Did They Mean By That? just came back into print and it also tells you what kind of juries there are and that kind of stuff. But it doesn’t go into the level of detail that Black’s does.Hooper's Medical Dictionary
One of the other problems that I encounter all the time since I spend so much time in Civil War records is trying to determine what things mean.
How do I deal with that? I use Hooper’s Medical Dictionary because it was written in 1843, so the terms are in existence close to the Civil War. I also have in my library a more modern medical dictionary, but my experience is it doesn’t work as well as Hooper’s does in trying to find answers to questions.
So my great-great-grandmother’s brother, Newton Kingman, served as a first lieutenant in the 13th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. And he has orchitis.
Now, I know what that is and I’m not going to tell you what that is. I’m going to let you go find out for yourself. So if you don’t know what orchitis is, go and figure it out because I’m not going to put it in here. But the definition is found in Hooper’s Medical Dictionary.
Henry Scott, who is a private in the 3rd Battalion of 15th US Infantry in 1866, has a case of remittent fever. So when we look up remittent fever in Hooper’s Dictionary, we find that remittent means any disorder the symptoms of which diminish very considerably and return again so as not to leave the person ever free.
And then it says for remittent fever, see febris intermittens.
When I go and look for febris intermittens, it tells me that an intermittent fever or ague, a division of the order of febris of Cullen in the class parenzi, intermittent fevers are known by cold, hot, and sweating stages in succession attending each [unintelligible] and following by an intermission of remission.
There are three genres of intermittent fevers and several varieties and the dictionary goes on to discuss those. So probably more than you ever wanted to know about remittent fever.
I can remember the time where I spent a couple of years worrying about a diagnosis in somebody’s medical record. I can’t actually remember what it was.
When I finally got a copy of Hooper’s and looked it up, it said that word actually was gunshot, which was kind of embarrassing for me because I should have known it but I didn’t at the time.
So again, my go-to is Hooper’s Medical Dictionary 1843, two volumes. There are other books, even available from Heritage Books, that deal with medical dictionaries, but this one has a level of detail that I appreciate very much.
Estate Inventories
The other book I use for definitions is Estate Inventories: How To Use Them by Kenneth L. Smith.
And the reason that I use it more often than not is because when I Google definitions in an inventory, I’m unable to find that definition on Google. And largely on Google is the Oxford English Dictionary and you can access a lot of words that way, thousands of words, but not everything is in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Let me give you an example from just what’s on two pages in a list of items that exist in the dictionary. It’s called a glossary of uncommon words.
One of the words that’s there is the word “everlasting.” Now, I know what everlasting means, but is that what is means? What’s everlasting in an estate inventory?
Evidently, everlasting is a hard-wearing woolen resembling serge. And I couldn’t find that on Google.
And there’s one on the next page called fireslice. I Googled “fireslice” and I Googled “fire slice” and there wasn’t anything there that was useful.
The embarrassing part is that fireslice is a fireplace shovel. But the only place that I’ve ever seen it mentioned is in this Estate Inventories: How To Use Them.
Conclusion
So my recommendation is that you pick up a good law dictionary. You can find one in a law library, but go find a good legal dictionary, such as Black’s.
Go find a good medical dictionary, such as Hooper’s.
Go find Kenneth L. Smith’s Estate Inventories: How To Use Them.
And add to your library probably the three volumes of the dictionary A to Zax, What Did They Mean By That?, and More What Did They Mean By That?
