Abbreviations in Dutch Genealogy Records Defined

Virginia asked a very good question about genealogy abbreviations.

Reading your lineage of the Post family and the Pane-Joyce Genealogy for the same family I find the abbreviations "ym" and "yd" that do not seem to mean "year married" or "year died". What do these mean? I am new to finding my family's history and haven't found where these abbreviations are defined. Thank you for taking the time to help this "newbie".

Virginia - Excellent question. I neglected to give a link to where these Dutch church abbreviations are explained.

Please see Translations of Words in Dutch Church Records for y.m, y.d and other commonly used abbreviations

Abbreviated Names in Genealogy Records

Mitch asked about a set of early ships passenger lists to Virginia found on my website at
http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/tova_constance1635.shtml

Contained in the the following link on your site are a number of names beginning with "Tho:" Are you able to explain what that means, please? For that matter, "Jo:"? I hope you are able to help, as I am stumped!

ASK OLIVE TREE ANSWER: Hi Mitch. "Tho." refers to the given name Thomas. No doubt the original record had the small superscript "s" added, which is the common method of denoting this abbreviated name.

As for "Jo" you will find two schools of thought on this - that it refers to the given name John or the given name Jonathan. Usually you see it as "Jno" so perhaps "Jo" is a transcription error.

Voter's Lists Abbreviations

Nat asked this question on a mailing list and I responded. Hoping my answer helps others, I am posting the Q and A here as well:

I'm hoping someone can decode the acronyms I'm encountering on the 1891 North Crosby Voter's list. Most make sense other then the column for "Qualification". I'm presuming it relates to the property ownership.

I have one relative listed as "M.F. and Tenant" and the other listed as "M.F. and F.S." These relatives were brothers and living on the same property. Most of the
other people on the page are listed as "M.F. and Owner"

Olive Tree Answer: That's a great question Nat.

Books and other resources almost always have an explanation either in the front, or the back, of the abbreviations used. Unfortunately Ancestry has not included the first pages of the Voters Lists which would provide abbreviations and their meanings.

I took a look at the Internet Archives and searched their texts for VOTERS LIST ONTARIO. I chose a list for London Ontario for 1895 and on the first page is a list of abbreviations used.

m f = manhood franchise

Here is the page where that is found
http://www.archive.org/stream/cihm_01426#page/n4/mode/1up

f s is not given that year so it would mean searching another voters list to find out what that means. One Voter's List from an earlier year provided a meaning of "Farmer's Son" but I cannot say if this is correct for the year you want.