The Ancestor Hunt
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Newspapers
  • Newspaper Links
  • Obituaries
  • BMD Records
  • Photos
  • Yearbooks
  • Directories
  • By Location
  • Cemetery Records
  • Divorce Records
  • Naturalizations
  • Immigration
  • Mortuary Records
  • Church Records
  • School Records
  • Voter Records
  • Coroner Records
  • Probate and Wills
  • Alumni Records
  • Newsletter Page
  • Tools
  • Genealogy News
  • California Genealogy
  • Videos
  • Fun With Newspapers
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Historical Newspaper Research - Lesson 9 - Use Abbreviations

9/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is part of a series of educational posts, intended to provide you with information that will rapidly improve the skills needed to find pertinent newspaper articles from historical newspapers.

Lesson 9 is all about searching old, historic newspapers and capitalizing by using abbreviations in your search criteria.

In old newspapers, abbreviations were used to save space. Abbreviations were used to shorten many words - the most notable being given names as well as addresses.

Remember that your search criteria is just a series of letters that are matched against a search index that was created from the scan and OCR process applied to the subject newspaper page.

Your search index database is not smart enough, for example, to interpret "ave." for the word "avenue."  So if you are entering "335 14th Avenue" - if the search index includes "Ave" the search will not be successful. Therefore you must search both "335 14th Avenue" and "335 14th Ave" to get all ;possible results.

Here are some examples of abbreviations that you should employ in your search criteria:

  1. For street names, try "ave" and "avenue" Also "st" and "street". There is a great number of others that you should consider for the "type" of "street.
  2. For cities, if there is an abbreviation - for example NYC for New York City, or Philly for Philadelphia, try the abbreviation as well as the whole city name.
  3. How about business names - "co" and "company", "inc" and "incorporated", etc.
  4. Given names can provide a great number of increased results by using abbreviations.  Try abbreviations for names, such as "Wm" for William, or "Jno" for John, or "Jos" for Joseph, "Eliz" for Elizabeth, and "Robt" for Robert, just to name a few. Here is a terrific list from Genealogy In Time.
  5. One often forgotten is "Mrs." Remember that married women were not always addressed with their first name in a newspaper article, but were written as Mrs. Robert Smith for example, regardless if their name was Mildred, Margaret, or Mary.  So incorporate that into your search criteria.
  6. This one is a bit unique.  But if you are searching classified ads, you can always search for a phone number. We certainly don't know the phone numbers from many 20th century ancestors, but if you happen to find it in a telephone directory, you might find classified ads in newspapers by searching that phone number. When I was a kid, our number was Elgin 1-1696, so I would search for "Elgin" as well as "El" before the numbers.
  7. For military titles, try "Capt" for Captain, Col" for "Colonel", Sgt" for Sergeant, etc.


There may be many others, so you need to search for abbreviated words as well as entire words to maximize your search results.  My guess is that you can likely increase your pertinent results by 10 to 20%.

___________________________________

Please Share!


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Free Resource Links
    ​
    ​​

    By Location Newspapers Obituaries BMD Records Directories Photos Yearbooks Cemetery Records Divorce Records Naturalizations Mortuary Records Immigration Church Records School Records Voter Lists Coroners Records Probate and Wills Alumni Records

    Subscribe
    Option 1 - Receive Links to New Published Articles 4 X per month

    Enter Email

    Subscribe
    ​
    Option 2​ - Receive New Complete
    Bi-Monthly Newsletter​ 
    ​
    Enter Email

    Search This Site


    Need Help With Your Research?
    Picture
    Check out the 4,000 Pros at Trace.com


    Facebook Page
    Picture


    RSS Feed

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    November 2010
    October 2010

Picture
©2012-21

Thanks for Visiting The Ancestor Hunt
The Ancestor Hunt is focused on helping primarily hobbyist genealogy and family history researchers to achieve their goals.

"The Ancestor Hunt" is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.  There may be a small commission paid to "The Ancestor Hunt" should you purchase from Amazon.
.
"The Ancestor Hunt" is also an affiliate for "A Life Untold", Trace.com, Whoowe, StorySpot, and "Audiobiography". There may be a small commission paid to "The Ancestor Hunt" should you purchase from these companies.