I'm convinced that doctors and lawyers speak a foreign language. In fact, I know it. They speak and write in Latin, often using abbreviations, and sometimes this can be terribly frustrating to the lay person. Like Latin, other foreign languages can be frustrating to family history researchers, requiring detailed study, translation dictionaries, knowledge of the vernacular, and maybe even the help of a professional translator.

But even the English language can present similar challenges. Among the frustrating things I encounter in my own genealogical research are abbreviations and acronyms. Writers sometimes assume that everyone knows what they mean when they use a specific abbreviation, and acronyms are alphabet soup to many of us. Unless you know the jargon, you may be left in the dark. In "Along Those Lines . . ." this week, let's talk about abbreviations and the role they play in your research.

Read the rest of this article.... to learn the meaning of abbreviations used in Genealogy records

1. dft
2. inst.
3. d/o
4. guar
5. rel/o
6. dto
7. wdr
8. /s/
9. nd
10. tent
11. i.a.
12. ETO