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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2001-04 > 0986607761


From: (Nat Taylor)
Subject: Re: Tomlinson, Elizabeth PART I
Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2001 21:42:41 -0400
References: <20010406200052.27177.00004331@ng-ch1.aol.com>, <20010406202151.27113.00004694@ng-ch1.aol.com>, <3ACE6683.83FEA658@cwcom.net>


In article <>, Renia <> wrote:

>In 'Simple Latin for Family Historians' by the respected English
genealogist, Eve
>McLaughlin, published by the Federation of Family History Societies:
>'nepos' or 'nepotes' is defined as grandchild/ren, (very rarely - a nephew)
>
>In the more comprehensive 'Latin Word-List for Family Historians' compiled by
>Elizabeth Simpson, also published by the Federation of Family History
Societies:
>'nepos' or 'nepus' is defined as grand-child, descendant
>
>This reminds me of an admon of 1762, where various bequests were made to "a
>descendant of the sister of the mother", and "a descendant of the brother
of the
>father", and such-like, in English.
>
>Nephew is 'fratris filius' on the male side, or 'sororis filius' on the female
>side.
>
>It sounds like in the Elizabeth Tomlinson admon, that 'nepoti ex matre'
means 'a
>descendant of the mother'.

I'm surprised at these dictionaries' notice of nepos for nephew 'very
rarely': this is irresponsible, as usage varied widely with place and time:
to be so definitive, the dictionary should have specified the period and place
understood. Only in Classical Latin is 'nepos' more commonly 'grandson'
than 'nephew' (vide Lewis and Short). Medievally and in much modern notarial/
legal usage nepos more often means nephew than grandson (which was often
rendered
entirely distinctly, e.g. as 'neptis').

Thank you, Paul, for the edited reposting of your last years' posts, which
lay to rest the issue as far as I'm concerned. To nail it down, I'd
like to see another case of a 17th-c yeoman retainer using his lord's
surname as a given name for one of his sons / grandsons.

Nat Taylor

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