Abstract Books - List individual entries chronologically by district
land office (Old Federal books are at Bureau of Land Management)
Abstract of Title - Shortened versions of the documents affecting the
title to land
Acquired Lands - Federal lands obtained by purchase, condemnation or
gift under laws other than public land laws
Appurtenances - Things belonging to another thing such a yards and
gardens to a building
Appurtenant - An accessory incidental to land in which a person owns an
estate. Such as an agreement or right f way across the land of another.
Assigns - To transfer property, particularly personal or moveable
property voluntarily or for consideration
Benefice - A kind of land tenure adopted in the Frankish kingdom in the
eighth century whereby a seigneur leased land to a freeman in beneficium
(for his benefit) usually for the tenant's life but sometimes
hereditary; later an ecclesiastical office to which church attached
perpetual right of receiving income.
Bounty Land Warrant - A right to obtain land, a specific number of acres
of unallocated public land granted for military service. BLW or BLWT
Caveat emptor - Let the buyer beware.
Cestui que trust - A beneficiary of property held by a trustee in trust.
Cestui que use - A person whose property was transferred for the benefit
of another person.
Cestui que vie - A life estate transferred to a person
Chattels real - Rights derived out of real estate, devolved on personal
representatives, not heir
Close - Field or piece of land separate from others or from common land
by a bank or hedge, legally unjustified entry into such is trespass
(quare clausum fregit)
Conveyance Deed - Transfer of property from one person to another.
Copyhold - A tenure of land in England (feudal) abolished in 1925, when
it all became freehold
Corporeal Hereditament - Right to inheritance of tangible property, e.g.
an estate in land
Corporeal Rights - Tangible rights in property, such as an estate in
land as opposed to "incorporeal" rights.
Croft - A small parcel of land.
Curtesy - The life estate of a widower n the lands of his deceased
spouse, if he sired issue by her which were or was borm alive
Customary freehold - privileged copyholds
Deed - A document in writing, if signed and acknowledged by which an
estate or interest in land is transferred from a grantor to a grantee,
or donor to a donee if a gift deed.
Deed Poll - A deed executed or signed by one person only, even though
other grantors were involved, and in some instances the names of the
grantees were added later.
Demise - A lease, transferring from a lessor to a lessee a leasehold
estate for a term of years, for life, or "at the will" of the landlord.
Devisee - One to whom real property is given in a will. (Devisor - one
who gives the property)
Direct Deed - Pertaining to grantor deeds
Disposal - A transaction which leads to the transfer of the title of
public lands to non-Federal ownership
Disseisin - The ouster or removal of a person from possession of real
property.
District Land Office Plat Book - A book of maps which show the location
of the land of the patentee (In Cartographic Branch of the National
Archives)
Tract Book - A book which lists individual entries by range and township
(in Bureau of Land Management)
Donation Application - Application for frontier land in Florida, New
Mexico, Oregon or Washington.
Dower - After the death of a husband, a widow's one-third interest in
his land for the rest of her life
Easement - A right of way, right of use but not possession over or in
the lands of another person.
Eminent Domain - The right and power of government to condemn private
property for public use if just compensation is paid the property owner.
Originally published in WCGS Newsletter (September 1997).
