Abbreviations

[Bo Peep]

Here are some to get this thread started.

Admons - Letters of Administration.
AGRA - Association of Genealogists & Record Agents.
BMDs - Births, Marriages & Deaths.
BOTP - Both of this parish.
BTs - Bishops Transcripts.
CRO - County Record Office.
E-Books - Books available electronically.
FHS - Family History Society.
GOONS - Guild of One Name Studies.
GRO – General Register Office for England & Wales.
GROS - General Register Office for Scotland.
MIs - Monumental Inscriptions.
OTP - Of this parish.
PB - Private Baptism
PCC - Prerogative Court of Canterbury (Wills)
PRO - Public Record Office
PRs - Parish Registers.

[Wirral]

Could you add GROS (General Register Office for Scotland) and clarify that GRO is the General Register Office for England & Wales?

I think that it is easier if the common abbreviations are actually listed on the thread, rather than in links. If you follow a link away from the forum, you might not come back. ;)

[Pam Downes]

Here are some to get this thread started.

GRO – General Records Office

Bo Peep,
Did you mean General Register Office? (though I confess to looking it up and double checking! :) )
Pam

[Bo Peep]

Bo Peep,
Did you mean General Register Office? (though I confess to looking it up and double checking! :) )
Pam

Yes, I did. Blame it on senility!

[Pert]

what are these

banns
ba
sp

[Alan Welsford]

I may get picked up on exact detail, but...

A marriage by the calling of banns is where at least one of the parties lives in a the parish where the wedding will take place, and notice of the intended wedding is read out in each of their "home" churches at 3 times at weekly intervals beforehand. "By banns" was a lower cost option than "by licence", where a licence to marry has to be purchased, and the banns process is not required.

If couples needed to wed quickly, or were both from out of parish, then "by licence" is normal, but the larger share of weddings were "by banns", because at least one of the parties usually could claim to live in the parish.

EDIT:
As well as Baptisms, Marriages & Burials appearing in Parish Registers, there were also Banns registers, where the calling of Banns was recorded, (survival rate seems to be patchy in parishes I have looked at). These can be useful, because, for example, you may be looking at a banns register for the grooms parish, which records the intended bride to be of a different parish. This can often point you to the parish where the actual wedding took place, and is recorded. Of course there is always the possibility that banns were called, but a marriage never actually followed for some reason. So an entry in a banns register is not proof of a subsequent wedding, but indicates a high degree of probability that one occurred. (I've seen differences in names between a banns register and a marriage register, perhaps because a curate was unfamiliar with the surname of someone "out of parish".)

ba = bachelor
sp = spinster
otp = of this parish
ofa = of full age (i.e. over 21, and not requiring parental consent).

I'm not a church person, so waiting to get torn apart on my description of banns, which I'm sure is not 100%, so I may learn something.

Alan

[Geoffers]

AT - Archdeacon's Transcript
BT - Bishop's Transcript
(These are annual copies made of parish register entries, for counties where there are ATs, these records cover 6 years, in the 7th year the copy was returned to the Bishop and so is called a BT)

IGI - International Genealogical Index
NMM - National Maritime Museum
RM - Royal Marines
RN - Royal Navy
SoG - Society of Genealogists
TNA - The National Archives

The National Archives has a vast number of records which are grouped into classes. These classes have prefixes which help to locate records if you know what they mean and what you expect to find, most are fairly obvious, amongst them are:

ADM - Admiralty, concerned with the Royal Navy
AIR - RAF records
ASSI - Assize, Court records you'll find many serious crimes here.
BT - Board of Trade, things such as Merchant Seamen pouches
C - Chancery, lots of court records
CO - Colonial Department
CRIM - Central Criminal Court - lots of indivudally indexed cases here.
CUST - Customs, contain entry books for Excise men in CUST116
E - Exchequer, lots of court records, also musters, subsidies, surveys
FO - Foreign Office
HO - Home Office, an enormous collection of varied records, including early census returns. Naturalisation and denization records are in classes HO1, HO45, HO144 and help to identify immigrants
IR - Inland Revenue, Board of stamps apprenticeship books, Land Tax and other revenue
J - Supreme Court of Judicature (Justice), divorce records are in J77
MEPO - Metropolitan Police
MH - Ministry of Health, the most helpful records here are those created in MH12 as a result of the Poor Law Amendment Axct 1834
PC - Privy Council
PCOM - Prison Commission - prisoners' photographs are in PCOM2
SP - State Papers, a large collection of wide-ranging documents
T _ Treasury
WO - War Office, army records

This list is nowhere near complete, just the more regularly used classes.

[Alan Welsford]

I've amended my posting of last night to also mention Banns Registers, which can have their uses.

Alan

[LittleMissP]

RN - Royal Navy


Just a little aside, RN can now also mean Registered Nurse. There also used to be SEN and ENs (State Enrolled Nurses and Enrolled Nurses).

Paula

[Neil Wilson]

RAF - Royal Air Force
FFHS - Federation of Families History Societies