Address abbreviations

[Megan Roberts]

My mind has gone blank ...............................

When you see an address such as:

Llaindelyn Letterston S O, Letterston, Pembrokeshire, Wales

What does "S O" stand for?

Thanks.

[gasser]

Hmmm........sorting office, maybe?

[Peter Goodey]

What's the context? What's the date?

If it were related to the Post Office (as good a guess as any), I think S.O. would mean "sub office"

[Megan Roberts]

What's the context? What's the date?

Its the 1911 Census - address line as shown on the FMP transcription page. They were living in a private house, not a sub post office.

There is something in the back of my mind about sanitation districts, but I can't recall it.

If you want to have a look search "Emma Gambold born 1867".

[gasser]

There is something in the back of my mind about sanitation districts, but I can't recall it.

If you want to have a look search "Emma Gambold born 1867".

Saw original transcript and I've looked up sanitation districts, and regrettably, have seen nothing which could answer this question. I may have overlooked something but I'm stumped....sorry.

[Pam Downes]

The only place I can see any reference to the 'S. O.' is on the address page of the original household schedule. Comparing the writing on that and then the enumerator's schedule, I think it's a fair bet to say that the enumerator completed the address page.

I've checked on a couple more entries. Mr Jacob, who lived next door but one to Emma, just wrote Letterston on his schedule though the address page said Letterston S.O, but Thomas Morgan actually wrote Letterston S.O. on his original schedule.

No clues (that I can see) at either of these two sites.
https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10192493
https://bobcat.iso.port.ac.uk/www/hgi...&user_lang=eng

Pam

[thewideeyedowl]

I'm stumped too, but this Genealogical Abbreviations site suggested "Stationary" Office (so it wasn't moving around!): https://homepage.ntlworld.com/hitch/gendocs/abbr.html#S, by which they seem to mean "as in HMSO". But the mis-spelling suggests the site may not be that reliable.

Otherwise, I think I favour something like "sub office", i.e. something to suggest that it is a lesser division of something bigger.

Or perhaps it was just a spelling mistake???

Owl

[thewideeyedowl]

Perhaps it is "Stationary" office, after all, because it was in a fixed location. Have found refs, on TNA, to "stationary hospitals" and, in a postal context, to "travelling post office" (TPO). And there used to be "circulating libraries".... So am now thinking it was something that was "fixed" - but may not necessarily have had anything to do with the postal service.

And on TNA, I found many instances of "His/Her Majesty's Stationary Office". (And there was me thinking it was all about stationers selling stationery!!)

Learning something new every day.

Owl

[Peter Goodey]

They were living in a private house, not a sub post office.

Now was I suggesting they lived in a post office? The S.O. is part of the second line of the address and couldn't possibly refer to their dwelling. What crossed my mind was that the postal address was indicating that post came via the Letterston sub office. I may well be wrong.

But what we can say is that it's nothing unique to Letterston. If you search the 1911 census using only a keyword of "S.O" you can see several cases where "S.O" is included in the address.

[helachau]

I've seen "S.O" regularly when searching Historical Directories - unsure why but thought it had something to do with the Railways?