Commonly Used Family History Abbreviations
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AGRA | Association of Genealogists & Researchers in Archives |
| BMD | Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates |
| CE | Church of England |
| CRO | County Record Office |
| FFHS | Federation of Family History Societies |
| FHS | Family History Society. A county based organisation set up to promote the research of Family History and Genealogy. |
| FHS’s | Family History Societies, see FHS above. |
| GEDCOM | Genealogical Data Communication. A standard file format for transfer of genealogical data from one computer package to another. |
| GENfair | GENealogical Fair |
| GENUKI | Genealogy for UK and Ireland. Found at http://www.genuki.org.uk |
| GIF | Graphics Interchange Format. Computer file format. |
| GRO | A visit to the General Register Office website will allow you to search BMD indexes, together with information on adoptions and civil partnerships. |
| HFH | Hampshire Family Historian – the name of the quarterly journal published by the HGS. |
| HGS | Hampshire Genealogical Society |
| IGI | International Genealogical Index |
| JPEG, JPG | Joint Photographic Experts Group. A computer file format well suited to storing scanned images of photographs. |
| Kew | Public Record Office located at Kew, London, England |
| LDS | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Also known as “The Mormon’s”. Their web-site is located at https://www.familysearch.org/en/ |
| MI | Monumental Inscriptions, Members Interests. |
| ONS | Office for National Statistics. See FRC above. |
| OS | Ordnance Survey |
| PAF | Personal Ancestral File. An excellent computer package produced by the LDS available as a free download from:http://www.familysearch.org. Now at version 5. |
| PRO (now TNA) | Public Record Office (Now ‘The National Archives’) |
| RC | Roman Catholic |
| RO | Record Office |
| SA | Seventh Day Adventist |
| SAE | Self Addressed Envelope |
| SSAE | A Stamped Self-addressed Envelope (With enough postage stamps to cover the anticipated return of a query to your country, bearing in mind that heavier packages can cost a lot more than you may first imagine. Please check with your local postal office for further details.) |
| SOG | Society of Genealogists |
| TNA | All census returns and wills can be found through The National Archives website. |
| WEA | Workers Educational Association |