{"id":11566,"date":"2015-10-05T11:14:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=11566"},"modified":"2021-10-21T13:11:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T17:11:30","slug":"how-to-find-your-ancestors-name-abbreviations-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/how-to-find-your-ancestors-name-abbreviations-more.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Find Your Ancestors\u2019 Name Abbreviations & More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Mary\u00a0Harrell-Sesniak tackles a problem many genealogists encounter: how to find newspaper articles about your ancestors when editors often abbreviated or hyphenated your ancestors\u2019 names. Mary is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background.
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So much has been written on searching newspapers for ancestors whose names have challenging spellings (see the links at the end of this article), but little has been written on dealing with ancestor name abbreviations and hyphenations. With narrow columns, newspaper editors often made adjustments in spacing to make an article fit. A wide variety of name abbreviations, hyphenations and spelling changes were used \u2013 as a result, genealogists\u2019 queries often miss their targets.<\/p>\n

Ancestor Name Abbreviations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Names are often shortened to accommodate character spacing issues, and this poses a challenge for genealogists searching old newspapers.<\/p>\n

Using abbreviations was even seen as a problem in the 19th century.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
New York Herald (New York, New York), 13 December 1891, page 26<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1826 there was a proposed New York state amendment that would have disqualified votes if a common abbreviation was used for the name on the ballot. The examples cited were \u201cAlexr.,\u201d \u201cWm.\u201d and \u201cJno.\u201d (Alexander, William and Jonathan). If these abbreviations were used on the ballot, then the proposed amendment would require that \u201cit would be imperative to reject all votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

One state legislator rose to oppose the amendment, pointing out that use of abbreviations was common on ballots.<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
Albany Argus (Albany, New York), 7 February 1826, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a humorous note, the debate on abbreviations fell along geographical lines. Gen. Root was opposed to the proposed amendment based on the orthography and the dilemma of the many \u201cYankee electors\u201d who \u201cmight be puzzled occasionally to write correctly the name of their candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
Albany Argus (Albany, New York), 7 February 1826, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Resources for Finding Name Abbreviations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several guides can be found on the web for finding name abbreviations. I recommend browsing several, since in one you may find \u201cAbraham\u201d abbreviated as \u201cAb.,\u201d while another guide might use \u201cAbr.\u201d or \u201cAbram.\u201d<\/p>\n