Talk:Genealogical Terms

Tell us what you think of the glossary. The letter A has incorporated lots of foreign words that might be of interest to genealogy reserachers, especially those working in foreign records. Is it too cumbersome to have all these words in one place or should they be divided up by language (e.g., a glossary of Finnish words and a separate glossary for Dutch words)? Another option is to break the list into a couple of shorter lists (e.g., AA to AS and AT to AZ). Give us your suggestions.

I think the foreign words belong on their own pages (or as you put it, divided by language). But I don't think all foreign words automatically belong in a glossary, either. Only terms that are unique to genealogical research. Ordinary words that might appear in legal documents in Germany aren't necessarily appropriate for a glossary, for example, but would be helpful in a language word list. Lise 18:22, 20 April 2010 (UTC)


 * I believe it makes more sense to divide the glossary by language. Any words that help the researcher understand the meaning of legal documents used in genealogy should be included in the glossary. I agree that we shouldn't re-create a language dictionary, but there are a lot of terms used in court records, land records, etc., that should probably be included. If necessary to control the size of the glossary document(s), we might be able to further subdivide by subject, with ample cross-references or links.Jimmy B. Parker 05:38, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

My guess is that the majority of all words in the glossary, including the foreign language words, are either already included in pages that relate to the subject or included on the word lists. For instance, the first word on the "A" page is a (ab) and this term is included on the Latin Genealogical Word List page. Consequently, my opinion is that the foreign language words could/should be removed from the glossary pages after verifying they already exist on the word list pages. If a word list doesn't exist for the language word, then creating a new language genealogical word list is very appropriate.

Other definitions of terms that are not specific language terms should probably be included on the page which uses the term. For example, the term "absentee landlords" appears in the wiki on the "A" glossary page and on the Prince Edward Island History page. This page could be enhanced by adding the definition of the term right on the page instead of creating a link to the glossary page. Therefore, the term could be removed from the glossary. Eventually, I think we could end up with a very small genealogical glossary, if one at all. For me, it just makes sense to have the definition right within the context that I'm reading on the wiki.

Looking forward to other suggestions... --Fran 19:07, 21 April 2010 (UTC)