Most things that I encounter in genealogy require some level of translation or interpretation. The obvious is when a record is in German or French. However, there are other things in genealogy research that require translating and interpreting. One of the most challenging is translating “old speak” into something understandable by the general public today.
Old Speak?
What do I mean by “old speak?” This is a term that I use for words and phraseology that are very rarely used today if at all, but which occur in old documents. Old speak is most likely to become an issue when reading old free form documents, such as wills and church records. Newspapers also may contain words or phrases unfamiliar to most people today. On the other hand, census records and other things that are standardized at the state or federal level are less likely to contain unfamiliar language, but are not immune to such language.
General Terms
One will that caught my attention was that of Christian Stetler Sr. (Klinefelter line). In his will, he indicated what was to happen to his plantation. This raised questions to me because he lived in Montgomery County Pennsylvania only a short distance from Philadelphia. Not only did I not associate plantations with Pennsylvania, I hadn’t found him to be overly wealthy. One record indicated that he had 125 acres, but many men in the area owned more land. With research, I found that at that time (early 1800s), a plantation was simply another name for farm. It did not necessarily imply wealth, or acreage.
Another word that shows up a lot in old records is “instant.” It basically means “next” except that it comes after the word it modifies in sentences. For iexample, “Thursday instant” means “next Thursday.” Similarly, instead of saying, “last August,” back in the day they would have used “August last.”
Now, this one may make you scratch your head. 4-great grandfather William Bassett’s records of his service were lost (that is a whole other story) and he had to provide an account of his service along with other evidence to receive a pension. In those records, he refers to the term “skiner” This term referred to the British using the end of their bayonets to injure the people fighting for America’s independence.
Medical Terms
The first words that come to mind as old speak are medical terms. Many old death records that included a cause of death use terms that are unfamiliar to most people. For example, Joseph P. Ellis, son of Joseph Andrew Ellis (great-grandma Rosa’s brother) died of consumption. Today, we would say that he died of Tuberculosis. In this case, the information appeared in a newspaper article and said enough that without a medical dictionary or the internet, it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out that it was at a minimum a chronic disease that would have resulted in someone moving in hopes of improved health.
Another example that can’t be as easily determined as to the exact cause of death is the case of great-great-great Grandmother Sally (Cox) Peelle. She died at age 56 of bilious fever, which is a term no longer used by medical professionals. Research shows that this was often associated with what we would consider Malaria, but some cases may have been from a form of hepatitis or from sepsis.
Interesting Meanings
A newspaper from the 1700’s mentions that William Hurrie would not be responsible for the debts of his wife. At first I did not realize the social and legal consequences of such a statement. It didn’t simply mean that he thought she was spending irresponsibly or that she had separate finances. Stating publicly that he would not be financially responsible constituted what is called self-divorce. He was basically stating that their marriage was over. No paper work needed to be filed as it had been openly stated.
Of course, before you can even interpret the old words, you have to be able to read the handwriting and get passed the nuances of handwriting at various times.
Image Source: Newspapers.com