dictionaries for everything!

 

As genealogists, we have our own vocabulary, and as we research different people, in different places, in different eras, we come across words and phrases that have fallen out of common usage in modern times, but we still need to try to make sense of them in their historical context.  Below is a list of dictionaries hot-linked to their free online locations, that offer a range of information specialties, to help you in your genealogy research.

(sidenote: watch for the soon-to-launch website www.GenealogyTopTen.com, which will include great lists like this one!)

 

• Word List: Definitions of archaic words

• Antiquus Morbus – Antique Medical Terminology

• Antiquated occupations

• Dictionary of American Family Names – Oxford Reference

• Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy

• An alphabetical dictionary of coats of arms … Great Britain and Ireland 

• Dictionary of First Settlers in New England

• Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th edition

• Tanguay’s Genealogical Dictionary of French Canadian Families

• Oxford Dictionary of Local & Family History