Genealogy Abbreviations
29 abbreviations · part of Common Abbreviations
Genealogists, family historians and peerage reference works use a compact set of abbreviations for life events (b., d., m., bur.), relationships (dau., wid., 1C1R) and uncertain dates (abt, bef., aft., bet.). Several are Latin, such as ob., s.p. and d.s.p., inherited from older pedigrees and church monuments. The GEDCOM file standard uses similar tags, so the same shorthand appears in family-tree software and online genealogy databases.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1C1R | First cousin once removed | Describes the relationship between a person and their first cousin's child, or between a person and a parent's first cousin, in genealogical shorthand. |
| ABT | About | Vowel-dropping shortcut for "about," used in quick texts and in social posts where space is tight, such as the 140-character tweets of Twitter's early years. |
| admr. | Administrator | Names the person appointed by a court to settle the estate of someone who died without a will, or whose will named no willing executor, in probate records and… |
| aft. | After | Indicates that an event happened after a given date, as in "d. aft. 1820," when a genealogist knows only that a person was alive at a certain point. |
| b. | Born | Precedes a date or place of birth in genealogies, biographies, reference works and obituaries, as in "b. 1952" or "b. |
| bap. | Baptized | Records a baptism date and place, especially from church registers, in genealogies where birth dates are unknown, as in "bap. 12 May 1749." |
| bef. | Before | Indicates that an event happened before a given date, used in genealogical records when only an upper limit is known, as in "d. bef. 1790." |
| bet. | Between (date range) | Expresses a date range in genealogical records, as in "b. bet. 1810 and 1815," when an event is known to fall within two limits. |
| bur. | Buried | Gives the date or place of burial in genealogies, cemetery records and family histories, as in "bur. |
| cem. | Cemetery | Abbreviates "cemetery" in burial records, genealogical notes and indexes, as in "bur. |
| chr. | Christened | Records a christening, the naming and baptism ceremony, in genealogical databases and family trees. |
| d. | Died | Precedes the date or place of death in genealogies, biographies, encyclopedias and gravestone transcriptions, as in "d. 1918." |
| d.s.p. | Decessit sine prole (died without issue) | Records in genealogies and peerage works that a person died without children, explaining why property or a title passed to another relative. |
| d.v.p. | Decessit vita patris (died in the father's lifetime) | Notes in pedigrees that a son or daughter died before their father, which matters for inheritance because rights could then pass to that child's own children. |
| dau. | Daughter | Abbreviates "daughter" in genealogies, wills, census transcriptions and peerage reference works, as in "dau. of John Smith." |
| dec'd | Deceased | Marks a person as dead in wills, probate records, legal notices and genealogical abstracts, as in "John Hale, dec'd." It often identifies the person whose estate is… |
| do. | Ditto | Means "the same as above" in census returns, ledgers, registers and lists, avoiding repetition. |
| exr. | Executor | Abbreviates "executor," the person named in a will to carry out its terms, in probate indexes, will abstracts and estate notices. |
| GEDCOM | Genealogical Data Communication | The standard file format for exchanging family-tree data between genealogy programs and websites, developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
| GGF | Great-grandfather | Abbreviates great-grandfather in genealogy notes, forums and family trees, with related forms such as GGM (great-grandmother) and 2xGGF (great-great-grandfather). |
| inf. | Infant | Notes that a child died in infancy, or identifies an unnamed baby, in genealogies and burial records, as in "d. inf." or "inf. son of John Hale." |
| m. | Married | Records a marriage in genealogies and biographies, often with the spouse's name, date and place, as in "m. 1846 Mary Hale." |
| MRCA | Most recent common ancestor | In evolutionary biology and genealogy, the most recent individual or species from which a set of organisms all descend. |
| N.N. | Nomen nescio (name unknown) | Placeholder in genealogies, church records and indexes for a person whose name is not known, as in "m. |
| ob. | Obiit (died) | Latin for "he or she died," found on tombstones, memorial plaques, church monuments and older genealogies, followed by a date, as in "ob. 1723." |
| res. | Resided | Records where a person lived at a given date, as in "res. |
| s.p. | Sine prole (without issue) | Latin phrase recording that a person had no children, used in genealogies and peerage works, usually as d.s.p. or o.s.p. ("died without issue"). |
| unm. | Unmarried | Notes that a person never married, often in "d. unm." (died unmarried), in genealogies, peerage works and family histories. |
| wid. | Widow or widowed | Indicates that a person's spouse had died, in census records, marriage registers and genealogies, as in "wid. of Thomas Hart." |
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