At 07:18 AM 3/9/00 -0500, SHieber@aol.com wrote: >Today while at the LDS library the woman next to me and I had a similar >problem. I was working with an 1855 NY State Census and she was working with >an 1870 NY Federal Census. > >On several pages, done in the same hand writing, there was a location: Mass >which we interpreted as the state of Massachusetts, and NY for New York. On >the same page would be the notation: MAPS or MAFS or WAPS or WAFS etc. as a >place of birth. Since the pages we were working with had MASS and NY >clearly written, we decided the writer of the census page did not mean the >"MAPS......" be Massachuetts or New York. It was not that the person "got >tired writing" be cause the MASS and NY could be above and below the above >notations, written clearly. > >Has anyone seen something like this "MAPS......." and what location of birth >do you believe it refers to. > >Susanne Susanne, What you are seeing is a use of the old-fashioned "long S" as the first letter of a double-S. It can resemble an F, but has no crossbar. Combined with a following ordinary S, it can resemble a P with a high stem at the beginning. This definitely is a birthplace of Massachusetts in all the cases you mention above. Regards, Robert Robert L. Ward rlward1@erols.com <http://users.erols.com/rlward1/> 12236 Shadetree Lane, Laurel, MD 20708-2832 301-776-1659