Good morning! I am attempting to find additional material for my daily tips; after 20 years, I have gone through a lot of source data! As an addition to the use of the word "late" in my tip last week, a reader reminded me of one more. "Jane Jones late Jane Smith ..." This would indicate that Smith was her maiden name. Now, a little tip on using abbreviations and the order of entering dates. We all use abbreviations in entering our genealogical data, but some can be confusing to the reader. We should be constant in the use of abbreviations and it is most helpful that there be an explanation sheet defining same. W/o is use often. Is this wife of or widow of. I prefer to use wid/o denoting a widow. S/o - Spouse of or son of - normally used for son of D/o - normally used for daughter of OSS - on same stone with. This denotes a headstone where both names are on the same stone. C/o - Consort of or child of? This is normally child of. DOB - Date of birth DOD - Date of death POB - place of birth POD - place of death M(1), M(2), etc. Marriage #1, marriage #2 etc. It's clearer to write Md (!) .... Dates can be the most confusing when one is reading the records of another researcher. You should pick a format, explain the format. As an example: 21 Jan 1802 Jan 21 1802 ---- these are logical and easy to determine. 21011802 -- now is that 21 Jan 1802 or is Feb 10th 1802 with an accidental extra 1 typed or written in? I am transcribing some records now where this format is used. I have to stop and read through other dates where it is more obvious as to where the month or day is shown first. This can throw off your records if you read it hurriedly and get the month and day reversed. My preference is to write a date as 21 Jan 1802 which is almost universal. But, it is quite acceptable to write it as we write dates normally, Jan 21, 1802. The main thing is to be consistent and if you're using a different format - give an explanation. Sandi Sandi's Puzzlers: http://www.gensoup.org/gorinpuzzles/index.php Sandi's site: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/