Acronyms of the Genealogy world

SAY WHAT???

I'm compiling a list of Genealogy acronyms.  Some may be familiar to you, others you may exclaim "SAY WHAT?"


When working on your genealogy, it is best to stick with known acronyms and not make up your own.  One should also spell out the abbreviations in the notes in case others don't know what it means, and in case you, yourself forget what the abbreviation means.









So take this test short quiz (don't worry its not graded) to see which ones you know.  I'll explain them all below the quiz.  There is a longer list of acronyms at this website:

AFN

BSO

COD

COL

COLL

DOB

DOD

DOM

GED

NBR

NEE

NMN

SIC

answers are below




XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

AFN	Ancestral File Number
BSO	Bright Shiny Object	A distraction
COD	Codicil of a will	or is it cash on delivery
COL	COLored	or is it collections
COLL	COLLege	or is it collage
DOB	date of birth
DOD	date of death
DOM	date of marriage
GED	Gedcom	or General education diploma
NBR	neighbor	Number
NEE	maiden name
NMN	No middle name	no married name
SIC	thus, as written	ill

Now this list is not all inclusive, nor may the acronyms mean what I have here, remeber I took it all from one website.

The one that really bugs me is the NMN, as many use that for maiden name, but I grew up with a parent who didn't have a middle name and  they always put NMN for her middle name.  Am I right? It depends on who you ask.


What this tells us, is depending on your education, where you grew up, how old you are, etc, etc, different abbreviations mean different things to everyone.  So, rather than have your ancestor guessing at what you meant, take a few extra moments and spell it out, or at lease leave a key to decipher your "shorthand".


How many times do we read old census records or wills and say to our self "SAY WHAT??"