a.a.s.=died in the year of his/her age (anno aetitis suae) ( 86 y/o died in year 86) d.s.p.=died without issue (Child)(decessit sine prole legitima) d.s.p.l.=died without legitimate issue (decessit sine prole mascula supesita) d.s.p.m.s.= died without surviving male issue (decessit sine prolem asculasupersita) d.s.p.s =died without surviving issue (decessit sine prole supersita) d.unm=died unmarriedd.v.p. died in the lifetime of his father (decessit vita patris) d.v.m.=died in the lifetime of his mother (decessit vita matris) Et al=and others (et alia) Inst= present month (instans) Liber=book or volume Nepos= grandson Nunc=Nuncapative will, an oral will, written by a witness Ob=he/she died (obit) Relict=widow or widower (relicta/relictus) Sic=so, or thus, exact copy as written Testes=witnesses Utl =late (ultimo) Ux or vs=wife (uxor) Viz= namely (videlicet) How To Read A 200-Year-Old Document and Other FAQs In reading newspapers, books and magazines from the 18th Century you will invarably notice that an "f" is apparently used where there should be an "s." For instance, the word "vessel" is printed as "veffel," the word "same" appears as "fame" and "castle" becomes "caftle." Because of the confusion encountered by readers new to 18th Century documents, we have asked three individuals knowledgeable in the history of typography to render their views on the subject. Their explanations follow: "The Long S is a legitimate form of "S." See the American Heritage Dictionary "S" entries. The Long S is similar to a lowercase f but the horizontal stroke does not go through the top of the letter. The long s still survives in German (or at least it was available when I studied German). German has an uppercase S, a lowercase long f and a lowercase s. "The Rules Are: "Regular uppercase S; "Terminal lowercase s and medial s under certain conditions; initial long f and medial long f." "Examples: "In the 1791 Bradford edition of Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the Introduction reads: "Perhaps the fentiments contained in the following pages are not yet fufficiently fathionable to procure them general favor...." "You will note that both fentiments and pages end with a normal lowercase "s" and both fentiments & fufficiently have an initial lowercase long f." - Richard Irby The typographic script "s" is an analogue of the handwritten letter, a sort of double loop, and used in the middle of the word. PrintersSsetSthe graphic version of the handwritten letter, which differs from the "f" in having a very minimal cross-stroke. They (the "s" and the "f") are not the same. To be precise, the script "s" was used in all positions except the last. Thus the word "success" would have begun with a script s, the penultimate letter would have been a script s, but the final letter would have been what we consider a normal "s". - Philip A. Metzger Special Collections Librarian The symbol ("s") was not an "f" although it looked like one. The long s letter can better be described as an "f" without the crossline traveling through the vertical line. The crossline only extends to the right of the vertical line. Also, the long s was never used at the end of a word or to denote the possessive or to pluralize. Since handwriting was considered an art form, the placement of the long s depended on what the "clark" felt would be visually pleasing to his audience. In a hand-written document, the top of the long s looked like the lower case fS." - Lawrence Davis