Abbreviation List


Abbreviations List

Here are some guidelines and suggestions for preparing your text for posting. The general idea is to be as brief and concise as possible, while still providing the maximum legibility and ease of understanding for your readers.

A few abbreviations/conventions are fairly common, and fairly standard. Here are some that I see researchers using frequently:

b. = born    dob = date of birth
d. = died     dod = date of death
m. = married
ca. = circa (which means "about this time")
bef = before
aft = after
s/o = son of
d/o = daughter of
+ = spouse
--> = special information here

"Tabbing" is best accomplished by spacing over, since not all e-mail programs are capable of reading tabs; some of them simply insert a single space, while others use their own system of measurement, each of which is likely to render the tabbed alignment incorrectly.

Surnames are generally given in all capitals, i.e., SHUMAN, SMITH, JONES, but the remainder of the text is in standard upper-and-lower case form.

Parenthesis marks () are frequently used to contain explanations of previous material.

Here are the standardized international abbreviations for a few European countries. For a more complete list, visit Country Abbreviations from the RSL.

 Abr  Country  Abr  Country  Abr  Country
 AUT  Austria  DEU  Germany  RUS  Russia
 BEL  Belgium  HOL   Holland  SCT  Scotland
 CSK  Czechoslovakia  IRL  Ireland  ESP  Spain
 DNK  Denmark  ITA  Italy  SWE  Sweden
 ENG  England  NLD  Netherlands  CHE  Switzerland
 FIN  Finland  NOR  Norway  UK  United Kingdom
 FRA  France  POL  Poland  


Here are the standard Postal Service abbreviations for the United States (USA) and Canada (CAN):

Abr  State Abr  State Abr  State
 AL  Alabama  MA  Massachusetts  TN  Tennessee
 AK  Alaska  MI  Michigan  TX  Texas
 AZ  Arizona  MN  Minnesota  UT  Utah
 AR  Arkansas  MS  Mississippi  VT  Vermont
 CA  California  MO  Missouri  VA  Virginia
 CO  Colorado  MT  Montana  WA  Washington
 CT  Connecticut  NE  Nebraska  WV  West Virginia
 DE  Delaware  NV  Nevada  WI  Wisconsin
 DC  Dist. of Columbia  NJ  New Jersey  WY  Wyoming
 FL  Florida  NH  New Hampshire  AB  Alberta
 GA  Georgia  NM  New Mexico  BC  British Columbia
 HI  Hawaii  NY  New York  MB  Manitoba
 ID  Idaho  NC  North Carolina  NB  New Brunswick
 IL  Illinois  ND  North Dakota  NF  Newfoundland
 IN  Indiana  OH  Ohio  NT  Northwest Territories
 IA  Iowa  OK  Oklahoma  NS  Nova Scotia
 KS  Kansas  OR  Oregon  ON  Ontario
 KY  Kentucky  PA  Pennsylvania  PE  Prince Edward Island
 LA  Louisiana  RI  Rhode Island  QC  Quebec
 ME  Maine  SC  South Carolina  SK  Saskatchewan
 MD  Maryland  SD  South Dakota  YT  Yukon Territory

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All contents copyright © 1999, Reavis Family. All rights reserved.
Created November 11, 1999. Send comments to: James Shuman
URL: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~reavis/abbrev.html