Useful Info

Abbreviations Used in Genealogy

  • AKA - Also Known As
  • BMD - Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
  • FHC - Family History Center
  • FHL - Family History Library (in Salt Lake City)
  • FHS - Family History Society
  • GRO - General Registrar’s Office (or Government Record Office)
  • H.O. - Home Office (UK only)
  • IGI - International Genealogical Index at the FHL (see above)
  • LDS - Latter Day Saints (Mormons)
  • ONS - One Name Study (when someone tracks ALL people with a particular surname)
  • NA - National Archives at Kew, UK
  • NLW - National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, Wales
  • PR - Parish Registers
  • PRO - Public Record Office in the United Kingdom
  • RG - Registrar General
  • SOG - Society of Genealogists  

Latin Phrases in Parish Registers

Baptisms

  • filius - son of 
  • filia - daughter of
  • et - and
  • baptizavi - I have baptised
  • natus - born (male)
  • nata - born (female)
  • gemelli, gemini - twins
  • trigemini - triplets
  • spurius - illegitimate

Marriages

  • nupsit - married
  • matrimonium - matrimony
  • connubium - marriage
  • licentiam - by licence
  • bannum - by banns

Burials

  • obit - (he or she) died
  • mortus - died
  • obit sine prole (o.s.p.) - (he or she) died without offspring
  • sepult, sepultavi - I have buried
  • dormit -sleeping
  • corpus - the body
  • requiescat in pace (R.I.P.) - rest in peace

General

  • parochia - parish
  • in comitatu - in the county of
  • in agro - in the county of (literally in the field of)
  • ibidem - of the same place
  • extraneus - a stranger
  • uxor (ux, vx) - wife
  • mater - mother
  • pater - father
  • vir, conjugatus - husband