First off, check out the new link on the menu above for “Dayna’s Genealogy Toolkit.” This is a collection of websites I find handy for the research process. In most cases I consider these tools because they are not places to find names and dates, but instead they give me a way to better organize and analyze information. Some of them, like Linkpendium and Genealogy Sleuth are portals to database collections but I like the way they are organized. One—Railroad Employee Records—is just a cool site I didn’t want to lose track of.
Today I am highlighting the first one on the list, the Geni.com collection of genealogy acronyms and abbreviations. We come across these mysterious entries in source documents all the time. For example…
How handy to have a quick place to look up AMOS, and how exciting to learn there is an Ancient Mystic Order of Samaritans. How could the Odd Fellows have possibly made their name more intriguing?
The website includes a list of books and websites that were referenced in compiling this list. One thing I find a little off-putting is all the spelling errors and typos in the paragraph that introduces the list. (Ugh. That is a pet peeve of mine!) The list itself seems to have been compiled with greater care, however, and I find it quite helpful.
Even though I can have more fun making up my own explanation for acronyms (you mean to tell me PBA doesn’t stand for Poor Babies of America??) it is more professional to use the standard interpretation.
Until next time…HT (Happy Trails!)
On Granny's Trail 