Jay is correct in his description of the meaning of &c, or etc. I'm doing Dec. 1846 marriages and all the clerks must have been "lazy clerks". It's not only Ashton &c. It's also Lewes, Lexden, Loddon, Tunstead, Winchester, Hereford and others, or, may I say it, &c. Which raises the point, how many transcribers are doing what our instructions say, TWYS - type what you see. The &c is ignored time and time again. Thanks for raising the matter, Kate, so that I may, as it were, get on my soapbox at Hyde Park Corner! If Ashton &c, for example, is an abbreviation by the indexing clerk for Ashton under Lyne, which name came in in full from the registration district in its quarterly return, why are not the registration districts with the &c abbreviation shown in full in the site at FreeBMD where the district is described. Evan S Redcliffe, Qld Aus ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gen Mail" <genmail@btinternet.com> To: <FreeBMD-Admins-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, January 04, 1970 5:51 AM Subject: Re: seeking suggestion for translating 1846 handwritten entries > You may now already have this (we've had a minor computer problem, so > I'm just catching up on e-mails). > > "&c" (with or without additional full stop) was a form of "etc". Both > being an abbreviation for "et cetera", a Latin phrase meaning "and the > rest" or "and so on". > > In the case of "Ashton" it probably means Ashton under Lyne (but that > is by no means certain). You've just got the pages of a particularly > lazy clerk perhaps! > > Hope this helps. > > Jay > > > > > > On Saturday, Sep 3, 2005, at 17:18 Europe/London, Kate McCain wrote: > > > I am currently transcribing handwritten entries from 1846. I have > > managed > > the "L that looks like an S" and similar oddities but one thing has me > > stumped. A few districts (e.g. Ashton, Hereford) have a single > > character > > following the district name that looks like something between an S and > > an > > &. Does anyone know what that character is? > > > > I notice that in the typed lists available from commercial vendors like > > Genealogy.com, this is translated as &c but that may simply be the > > typist's > > code for "I don't know what this character is." > > > > I'd really like to type what I see, but my choices seem to be either > > [S&] > > or _ . If anyone knows what the convention was back then for > > extending the > > names of some districts, and thus what I should be entering, please > > let me > > know. > > > > Kate McCain > > > > > > ==== FreeBMD-Admins Mailing List ==== > > Need to get a fast answer to your transcribing problems? Go to the > > Transcribers Knowledge Base at http://FreeBMD.RootsWeb.com/vol_faq.html > > > > ============================== > > New! Family Tree Maker 2005. Build your tree and search for your > > ancestors at the same time. Share your tree with family and friends. > > Learn more: > > http://landing.ancestry.com/familytreemaker/2005/ > > tour.aspx?sourceid=14599&targetid=5429 > > > > > ==== FreeBMD-Admins Mailing List ==== > Need to get a fast answer to your transcribing problems? Go to the > Transcribers Knowledge Base at http://FreeBMD.RootsWeb.com/vol_faq.html > > ============================== > Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the > areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. > Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx >