Abbreviations used in Family History
Enthusiastic Genealogists can seem to speak a language of their own given the number of technical terms and abbreviations often used.
Listed below are some of the terms and abbreviations that may be encountered with a non technical explanation.
AGRA The Association of Genealogists and Researchers They are one of the professional body for researchers. If you want to pay someone to do research they will be able top nominate a capable person to carry out your enquiry.
ANCESTRAL FILE This is the genealogical record system preferred by the Church of the Latter-day Saints who provide the biggest and best free search records.
CENSUS Census's have been carried out by governments for many years mainly for taxation purposes. Since 1841 the UK government has carried out a census every 10 years and have kept the records as a public document. The Census records the name,age,occupation and relationships of everyone living an each house in the UK on a given night. CWDC Commonwealth War Graves Commission ENUMERATION DISTRICT This relates to a small area covered by a UK Census FFHS Family History Federation. The FFHS is a UK national group although every area has its own FHS which is made up of local family history enthusiasts
FHC Family History Centres are run by the LDS to help trace ancestors FRC Family Records Centre in London with indexes of births,marriages and Deaths since modern records began in 1837
FREEBMD A free record of UK births,marriage and Death records- Not yet complete
FTM Family Tree Maker is one of the most popular software programs and provides the format FTM which is used for the majority of data disks
GEDCOM Gedcom is the standard file format used on the internet to exchange information between different programs and web sites
GRO The General Record Office. This is sited within the Family records Centre and carries out he official side of the work IGI International Genealogical Index is maintained by the LDS from church registers and information supplied by the public. The database is very large and is held in awe as it was the first large database available to the public LDS Church of the Latter Day Saints , often known as the Mormon Church. The church believes that it is import to it's members that they trace their ancestors for religious purposes and offered family history research before the internet became popular. They now have the biggest and best free databases of information
NAI The National Irish Archive maintains records for Ireland
NAS The National Scottish Archive maintains records for Scotland
SOG Society of Genealogists are a UK group who provide training and maintain records many of which are unique
TNA The National Archives is at Kew in London,UK. This contains official national records ranging from the Domesday book to lists of sailors serving at Trafalgar
