Following are but a few of the often puzzling letters one may come across when reading gravestones, wills or old documents.
What It Means
- a.a.s.: Died in the year of (his/her) age, i.e., a.a.s. 64 (anno aetatis suae)
- d.s.p.: Died without issue, i.e., without descendants (decessit sine prole)
- d.s.p.l.: Died without legitimate issue (decessit sine prole legitima)
- d.s.p.m.s.: Died without surviving male issue (decessit sine prole mascula supersita)
- d.s.p.s.: Died without surviving issue (decessit sine prole supersita)
- d.unm: Died unmarried
- d.v.p.: Died in the lifetime of his/her father (decessit vita patris)
- d.v.m.: Died in the lifetime of his/her mother (decessit vita matris)
- et al: And others (et alia)
- inst: Present month or time (instans)
- liber: A book or volume
- nepos: Grandson
- nunc: Noncupative will, usually an oral will written by a witness
- ob: The person died (obit)
- relict: Widower or widow (relictus or relicta)
- sic: So or thus, meaning exact copy as written
- testes: Witnesses
- ux: Wife (uxor)
- viz: namely (videlicet), or meaning the source…”as appearing in”
Who These Are
Hessians: German troops used by the British in the Revolutionary War. Many of these mercenary soldiers deserted and remained in America.
Huguenots: French Protestants that fled from persecution, mainly from 1685 onward. They went to Prussia, the German Palatinate, and often other places before they came to America. Those in the West Indies escaped to the southeastern coast of America; others went to England and Ireland. Large numbers of Huguenots settled in the New York-New Jersey region, at Mannakin, Virginia, and in the Carolinas.
Mennonites: A Swiss Protestant sect founded in 1525. Members migrated by way of Alsace, England and Russia to America. They settled primarily in Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Kansas.
Moravians: The United Brethern, or Moravian, sect is a Protestant group formed in Bohemia--a section of today's Czechoslovakia--about 1415. Members spread to Poland, Prussia, Germany, England and America.
Pennsylvania Dutch: There are at-odds interpretations of who the Pennsylvania Dutch were and who their descendants are. Some group them by religion, saying they are the Moravians, Amish and/or Mennonites. Others give them German-speaking roots in Switzerland or the Netherlands. Some say they are descendants of the Frisians. Others claim they are from the German Palatinate. Representatives of all these groups can be found in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the United States. While “Pennsylvania Dutch” may have had a specific meaning in the latter 1700s and early to mid 1800s, it has become a catch-all category now applied to people of various origins.
SOURCES: Connecticut Society of Genealogists Newsletter (Jan/Feb 1994 edition) and Hear-Saye, newsletter of the Old Saybrook (CT) Founders Association.
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