Acrobat: Acrobat is the software that allows you to read, search and print documents on Windows and Mac. Genealogy research CDs are often in the form of virtual books and come with Adobe Acrobat Reader Software for Windows. If you use an alternative Operating System software is available from the Adobe website. The files are bookmarked so you can jump to various sections and most are searchable and printable.

Ahnentafel: The name is German for table of ancestors and is one of the standard reports found in many programs.

Ancestor Chart: This shows the ancestors of the selected person, parents grandparents etc. It is normally of the form of an inverted pyramid. They can also take a circular form.

All Relations Chart: This type of chart is often the way trees are drawn by hand showing all the relations of a person. It is available in Reunion 5 for the Mac and can be constructed in WinGenea. Be aware that these are typically large due to their complex nature.

Descendant Chart: This starts with a selected person and shows their descendants generation by generation, children, grandchildren and so on. The information given on each person could also include a picture.

Digitising: The process of converting an image regardless of format (fiche, film, paper) to a digital format such as PDF.

Fiche: Reduced images of photographed documents provided as rectangular sheets of film containing a number of rows of frames.

Flash Plug-in: The Flash Plug-in enables you to view documents that have been created using Macromedia Flash software. The plug-in can be downloaded for free from the Macromedia website. Download and installation time is around 1 minute with a 56K modem.

For more information visit the Macromedia website.

Folio: This is a census reference number normally stamped at the to right hand corner of every other census book page and is used as a reference in indexes.

Gedcom: It is the name given to a standard file format for genealogical information specified by the Church of Latter Day Saints. It is derived from Genealogical Data Communication

Hourglass Chart: This starts at the selected person and goes down through the descendants and up through the ancestors.

IGI: International Genealogical Index

Indexing: The process of creating an index normally by Surname or combined Surname and Forename to material such as the census. Indexes to the census normally give a Piece and Folio Reference.

LDS: Latter Day Saints also known as the Mormon church.

Microfilm: Film rolls containing reduced images of documents. The standard storage used for historical documents is 35mm film or fiche.

Parish Records: These Acrobat CDs are transcripts of church records which date back to 1538. The Phillimore series cover marriages from mainly southern areas. The parish coverage is given in the book Index to Parishes in Phillimore Marriages by M. E. Bryant Rosie. These are complemented by various other transcripts done by the Register Society which contain baptisms and marriages.

PDF: Portable Document Format files are created by Adobe Acrobat which allows you to view books and other documents as computer based material. These can have search facilities, bookmarks and include multimedia items.

Piece: This is the name given to a section of census containing a number of enumeration districts for an area.