WikiTree Abbreviations & Acronyms

Profile manager: Liz Shifflett [send private message]

See Glossary, the main WikiTree Help page that defines terms and abbreviations commonly used in WikiTree's community. See also additional WikiTree Glossaries listed under the Glossaries Category.

This page is to provide a supplemental list of other acronyms and abbreviations encountered in WikiTree. To add to this list, you can edit this page or post a comment. Please add external links to additional lists under the External Links section. G2G is the best place to ask about a mystery acronym or abbreviation - posting to G2G from this page will help track such questions.

WikiTree Acronyms & Abbreviations

BMD: Births, Marriages, Deaths, see AllAcronyms.com - BMD

CBE: Communication Before Editing, see Help: Communication Before Editing

CLN: Current Last Name (a datafield on people profiles), see Name_Fields

DD: WikiTree Data Doctors

DOB: Date of birth (a datafield on people profiles), see Date_Fields

DOD: Date of death (a datafield on people profiles), see Date_Fields

DOM: Date of marriage (a datafield on marriage profiles), see Date_Fields

DWWA: Don't WikiTree While Angry, see Help: Don't WikiTree While Angry

EPCs: Extra-pair copulations (appears to be a European usage), see G2G discussion

EPP: Extra-pair paternity (appears to be a European usage), see G2G discussion

FASG: Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists

FSP: Help: Free-Space Profile, which can be created on WikiTree to supplement family history

G2G: WikiTree's Genealogist-to-Genealogist Forum, see About G2G

GEDCOM: "GEnealogical Data COMmunication" (see Help: GEDCOM)

LNAB: Last Name At Birth (what name the person was born with), see Name_Fields

LNAB is also the basis for a WikiTree ID (e.g., Webster-2256). Add double brackets to make it "clickable" - [[Webster-2256]]

Lnu: Last name unknown (not recommended for use in WikiTree, but may be encountered in a profile; see others, listed by the Unknowns Project)

MIR: Mentor Intervention Request, see Mentor Intervention Request

Mnu:

• Maiden name unknown (not recommended for use in WikiTree, but may be encountered in a profile)
• Middle name unknown (not recommended for use in WikiTree, but may be encountered in a profile; see others, listed by the Unknowns Project)

MRCA: Most Recent Common Ancestor, see Wikipedia (MRCA) & WikiTree's DNA Project Resources Page (MRCA)

NNS: New Netherland Settlers, an abbreviation for that project

NPE: Non-Paternity Event (genetic genealogy), from The Free Dictionary (WikiTree's DNA Project lists common DNA terms on its DNA Project Resources Page); aka Non-Paternal Event, Non-Parental Event, or Not Parent Expected (see above EPP also)

OLN: Other Last Name (a datafield on people profiles), see Name_Fields

OP: Opening post; also occasionally used to mean the person who made the opening post (on G2G - see above)

PA: Project Account (see Help:Project Accounts)^[1]

PB: Project Box (see Help: Project Boxes)^[1]

PC: Project Coordinator

PGM: Puritan Great Migration, an abbreviation for that project

PL: Project Leader

PM: Private message, see Help: Private Messages

PM: Profile Manager, see Help: Profile Manager

PMP: Project-Managed Profile (see Help:Project-Managed_Profiles)^[1]

POB: Place of birth (a datafield on people profiles), see Location_Fields

POD: Place of death (a datafield on people profiles), see Location_Fields

POM: Place of marriage (a datafield on marriage profiles), see Location_Fields

PPP: Project-Protected Profile (for details, see Project_protection)^[1]

TL: Team Leader

TL: Trusted List

UEL and UE: United Empire Loyalist and United Empire, respectively. UEL designates a Loyalist ancestor and UE designates a descendant of a Loyalist. For more information, see WikiTree's Project: United Empire Loyalists and the project's category page.

UPM: Unresponsive Profile Manager, or an Unresponsive Profile Manager Request Form (as in "file a UPM")

wp (or w.p. or wp.): will probated; will proved (from Geni's Abbreviations and Acronyms for Genealogy)

Source References

Many sources are so frequently used in genealogy that they are often referenced in shorthand. Here are some. While most of the sources listed below are considered reliable, FindAGrave is considered by most projects as reliable "with conditions" (i.e., sources and/or tombstone images) and FamilySearch's Pedigree Resource Files on their own are considered unreliable (although they may include citations to reliable sources). See Category:Reliable Sources for Pre-1700 Profiles for links to Reliable Sources pages for pre-1700 WikiTree projects.

DWB: Dictionary of Welsh Biography, National Library of Wales

FG / FAG: Find a Grave^[2]

FMG: Foundation for Medieval Genealogy

Host site for Medieval Lands (MedLands) database (see WikiTree's MedLands source page).

FMP: Find My Past

GRO: General Register Office (UK)

See England Orphan Trail: Citation templates

GSMD: General Society of Mayflower Descendants

IOOF: Independent Order of Odd Fellows usually used in connection with cemeteries

ISOGG: International Society of Genetic Genealogy (the "Beginner's Guide" section includes a glossary with acronyms)

NEHGR: New England Historical and Genealogical Register, published by NEHGS

NEHGS: New England Historic Genealogical Society

NYGBR: New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, published by New York Genealogical and Biographical Society

PRF: Pedigree Resource File, a collection of user-submitted genealogies at FamilySearch.org

TAG: The American Genealogist

TG: The Genealogist, owned since 1997 by "The American Society of Genealogists, who have maintained a publication schedule of two issues per year".

Latin Terms and Abbreviations

This section lists Latin terms and abbreviations (previously collecting in the comments) that are frequently found in sources or references. Many of the definitions were found on this Rootsweb page, accessed 30 September 2019. See also this G2G discussion (for example, this comment lists variations of dsp) & this one. See the External Links section below too.

d.s.p.: descessit sine prole - died without issue (in other words, no children)

d.v.p.: decessit vita patris - died in the lifetime of the father

ibid. or ibidem: "in the same place", used to indicate that a reference is from the same source as the previous reference (from Merriam-Webster). Note: This should not be used in a Wiki, since citations don't stay in the same place in a WikiTree profile as they would on a printed page.

i.p.m.: Inquisition post mortem (see this G2G discussion, this external link, and the definition from FamilySearch included in the comment below, from 2017)

n.b.: nota bene - note well (frequently NB; many who use NB also use ND, standing for "no date")

ob cælebs or ob. cæl.: died a bachelor

op. cit.: opere citato - in the work cited (from this G2G comment). Note: As with ibidem, the rearrangement of citations that can occur in a Wiki make this a problematic term to use in a WikiTree profile.

ux, vx: uxor - wife^[3]

vid.: vidua - widow^[4]

External Links

See Source References above also, and the Jan 18 2021 Comment below.

• Abbreviations and Acronyms for Genealogy (Geni)
• Abbreviations Found in Genealogy (USGenWeb)
• Abbreviations in Medieval Genealogy (Rootsweb)
• Abbreviations and Acronyms (Genealogy Today.com)
• Acronyms and Abbreviations (FamilySearch.org)
• Acronyms List (acronymslist.com; includes 22 categories of acronyms, several of which might be found on WikiTree including Human Genome Acronyms, plus a search function)
• Handy Computer Acronyms and Abbreviations (Kitchen Table Computers)
• Latin
  • List of Latin abbreviations (Wikipedia)
  • Latin Genealogical Word List - Latin Abbreviations (FamilySearch)
• Medieval Genealogy: Links, Miscellaneous Section, which includes Abbreviations:
  • Glossary & Common Abbreviations (soc.genealogy.medieval)
  • Abbreviations Occurring in 17th Century Records (Guy Etchells)
• Military Links
  • DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms
• Roots Genealogical Abbreviations (explaining abbreviations used in Rootsweb)
• Short Forms Redux: Abbreviations often found in the law (The Legal Genealogist blog)
• Terminology Used by Our Ancestors (The Morris Clan)
• Urban Dictionary (for netcronyms, such as L8R)
• Welsh Language Tools for Genealogists (Upstate New York Welsh), a collection of useful links, including
  • Common Words & Phrases on Welsh head stones & Memorial Inscriptions

Footnotes

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} A project account (PA) can be a profile manager. If a PA is a profile manager, the corresponding project box (PB) must be displayed; conversely, if a project box is displayed, the corresponding project account must be a manager. Profiles displaying a project box and managed by the corresponding project account are called project-managed profiles (PMPs). A profile that is locked - i.e., a project-protected profile (PPP) - must be a project-managed profile. Stated as a formula: PA+PB=PMP; if PPP, then PMP. (Note that a profile can be a project-managed profile but not PPP.)
2. ↑ See also Help:Find A Grave. Note that, as of 26 October 2022, "Find a Grave® Style Guide and Logo" states that references to the site should "use the full name with capitalization... always use a lowercase 'a'.... When using the name of the site, please include the ® mark after the first instance. We avoid using acronyms for the site name, but if necessary we use FG."
3. ↑ Genealogy.com: Latin terms (accessed 2 September 2022).
4. ↑ Wiktionary: Latin vidua