Abbreviation Paralysis

I have had several applicants lately tell me they were so freaked out by having to abbreviate their source documents on the worksheet that they were essentially paralyzed. If that is you, sit down, take a couple of deep breaths and let the fear go.

The worksheet is a rough draft. It is a framework for you to use to verify that you have all the documents you need to prove your line. Abbreviate on the worksheet however works for you! It is not the final application. It is only a tool that you can use as you need. If you need more space, fine, if the pages don’t print as they should, fine. I can deal with all of that when I prepare the finished application.

We have given you some suggested abbreviations to help you save space, but when I prepare your finished application, I will re-work all the abbreviations to conform to Society standards. I tend to work from the documents themselves, turning to your worksheet mainly to make sure I have everything and to verify spellings. Even then, on many applications, the verifier at the General society will often have different ideas and change the abbreviations again!

You do NOT need to put a full citation on the worksheet because you will be sending photocopies of the documents with your worksheet. All I need is enough so that I know what document you mean. If you want to give a full citation, print it on the back of the document. We are all constantly urged to cite your sources and given great guidance on how to do that, but this is not the place for full source citations since you will be sending photocopies of each document.

Let me give you some examples:

·       For a birth certificate, don’t put “Marion Co, OH birth certificate number 12345” – just put B/C. The place and number are readable on the document itself.

·       For an old ledger style record, you can put the location information on the back of the copy if it is not legible on the front.

·       For digitized documents that you have downloaded, you can write the name of the website and collection on the back. DO NOT print a copy of the index page – I am just going to recycle the extra paper.

·       For a book, you don’t need to put in a full citation such as “Commemorative Biographical Record Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa, LaFayette Co WI, Chicago, JS Beers & Co, 1901” because you are going to include a photocopy of that title page which has all that detail! A decent abbreviation might be “Bio Rec Rock etc.” with the page number you are referencing.

·       A reference that is not the original for the event, such as using a detailed marriage certificate as a proxy for a non-existent birth record should be put in parentheses, e.g. “(M/C)”.

Let me also give you some information on the somewhat cryptic things we put into abbreviations. If you see a number in parentheses it is most likely the age of the person in that document such as a census record or death record. If you see the word “parents,” that means the full names of both parents are written on the document. See the table below for more suggestions and explanations.

Common abbreviations

Mayflower Families through 5 Generations Volume 4 page 125	MF 4: 125
Mayflower Families in Progress, Brewster, person # 100	MFIP Brewster #100
Birth, Marriage or Death Certificate (only a single event is documented)	B/C, M/C, D/C
Birth, Marriage or Death Record (multiple events/people in a single document)	B/R, M/R, D/R
Federal Census Year 1850 North Carolina	1850 FC NC
State Census Year 1855 New York	1855 SC NY
Vital Records of Kingston, MA pg. 161	Kingston VR: 161
Vital Records of Rhode Island (Arnold) Vol. 3, part 1, pg. 10	VR RI 3:1:10
Rhode Island Vital Records (Beaman) Vol. 3, pg. 270	RIVR (Beaman) 3:270
Grave Stone photograph	gs photo
Harlow Family pg. 60	Harlow Fam: 60
New England Historical and Genealogical Register Vol. 3, pg. 30	NEHGR 3:30
Plymouth County Probate Records Vol. 39, pg. 68	PLY Co. PR 39: 68
Plymouth County Deeds Vol. 2, pg. 50	PLY Co. Deeds 2: 50
If B/C, M/C or D/C used as a reference for other than the event itself, place in parenthesis.	(B/C) (M/C) (D/C)
No mother’s maiden name	nmmn
Parents	pars
No given name	ngn
No record found	NRF
Put dates and places you think are correct but cannot prove in square brackets	[1800]