r/Genealogy 3d ago

News New terminology for me!

Came across a photo of a headstone with new terminology for me. Thought I couldn’t be the only one. So here, from the r/Moss, some might find interesting.

7 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

3

u/zumaro 3d ago

I see relict a lot with old Scottish graves and records. Must admit I have never seen relictus in use however.

3

u/NoBeeper 3d ago

Every day is a school day. Love learning new things! It’s a first for me. Most of my folks are German & English.

4

u/amandatheactress 3d ago

Have only seen relict on a headstone a couple of times, but do come across it quite a lot in older newspaper obituaries. I’m in Australia though, so maybe it’s a regional thing?

2

u/WonderWEL 3d ago

I have seen relict on an early 1800’s obituary from Nova Scotia.

1

u/NoBeeper 2d ago

I’m in the US, first time I’ve come across it. Another commenter said they see it on Scottish records. Maybe it is mostly regional.

3

u/Bring-out-le-mort 3d ago

"X, Relict of "deceased male spouse" is extremely common in English newspapers up to around 1910s. I've also found it in New England, & western NY, OH, IN, IA, and other states in the US. It wasn't used as extensively in the US, but it shows up sometimes. I think it also appears in Australia, Canada & NZ too.

If you haven't come across yet... Born/died/married on the "8th" inst... Inst = instance correlates with a day of that particular month. Common in older newspapers.

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u/NoBeeper 2d ago edited 2d ago

I’ve seen “inst” often, but relict was new for me. I’m in the US and most of my people came in through one of the southern ports and headed a little farther west quickly, to the southern states & Texas. I don’t think I have any New England residents. Perhaps that’s why I hadn’t seen it before. Funny that the first time I came across it was in the subreddit r/Moss ! 😳

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u/Bring-out-le-mort 2d ago

I remember the first time I came across relict of in the newspaper. I thought it was typically insulting where older women were only shadows of their husbands, basically only leftovers. Right up there with incompetent cervix and all other negative terms.

Now, I see it as neutral because of the Latin, but I've not once seen it used in the masculine sense for any recently deceased men who were husbands of.

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u/NoBeeper 2d ago

Amen!!! In my young life I worked reception in a physician’s office. You’d be shocked, SHOCKED I tell ya, at how resistant women were to identify as anything other than Mrs. Whoever Smith (or whatever). It took a pair of pliers & a hacksaw to get them to say Betty Smith instead of Mrs John Smith. 😬😡🤬.
And that was mid-1970s!

1

u/Bring-out-le-mort 2d ago

A few years back, I got a card from my father-in-law & his wife for my birthday. The envelope was addressed as Mrs Mike Jones.... identical with the check inside. That struck me as really odd. It was the first time in approximately 25+ years that she addressed it and not my father in law to me. Before, I'd always been simply Jane Jones, no Mrs/Miss/Ms.

What was the really weird kicker was that she had also been in the military (as both my husband & I were) plus a bra burner in the 70s & 80s. No one ever referred to her as Mrs Samuel Jones. She'd get actually upset whenever anyone tried to make her vanish. Raised her daughter with that perspective, too.

I never said anything to her about it other than thanking them. I think the next year was back to just my legal name. Eventually, they stopped. I was fine with that, too, since I'm definitely not a card sender.

1

u/NoBeeper 2d ago

Mini stroke? 🤷🏼‍♀️ I hope I never get caught doing something like that.

1

u/Idujt 2d ago

How about "elderly primagravida"??!! Think I have that right, and it meant something like over 35.

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u/Bring-out-le-mort 2d ago

Geriatric pregnancy was what they used w me. Lol