What does "ao" mean in the 1861 Canadian census? [closed]

Question

I have a feeling ao means something like "same as head of household" but I'm not sure.
 

For example everyone in the Henth household has "ao" written as their religion, except for the head of the house who has "Baptist" written. What does ao mean, does it even say ao or am I misreading it?

Comments

The 1861 Census of Canada can be a bit strange, in many areas the people enumerated only have an initial for a first name.

I agree the 'ao' is badly written 'do' sometimes written with a capital 'Do' or just double quotes " which were also used to mean ditto

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It's been difficult to decipher, certainly. I was searching for a William Townsend, only for me to miss him because he was marked as "WT"! Rookie mistake on my part, I guess.

I found double quotes in other parts of the census, so you're right in thinking the "ao" to actually be "do", seems like my cursive comprehension needs a little work!

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It's not your cursive it's the enumerator's handwriting!

Answer 1

Without seeing the page you're looking at, it sounds like it could be "Do", short for "ditto", so everyone in the household is Baptist.

Comments

I thought I attached the page, my mistake!

https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1861&op=pdf&id=4108656_00078

Ditto seems to be correct, thank you

Answer 2

Is it do, rather than ao. This is  short for ditto which does mean that the words above are repeated. It may be acompanied by double apostrophes.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditto_mark

 Oops  I answered but forgot to post