<<I'm not sure of the meaning of this abbreviation - is it "alias" or "also"? Are they interchangeable? I always thought that "alias" meant a substitute name. In my case, the beginning of a will dated 1 April 1691 says "I Francis Lloyd of Cockshutt als Crosemeare...". You can see an image at: http://hometown.aol.com/amilb36287/myhomepage/photo.html The "als" seems to have the abbreviation line on top of the word. Cockshutt and Crosemere are two separate towns, even if very close (half a km), so the meaning seems to be "and". Would "alias" have this meaning too?>> Hello Alejandro, 'als' is an abbreviation of 'alias', which means 'otherwise'. It appears in old records almost exclusively to introduce an alternative surname (though I have once or twice seen it used for an alternative forename), which is why in modern English it has become a noun meaning a substitute name - as you said. I don't think I've never seen it used it to indicate alternative names of a place, though there's really no logical reason why it shouldn't have been. My first reaction would be that in this case it means that Francis Lloyd's residence was in a place called Cockshutt otherwise Crossmeare. But if you say these were two separate places then it must mean that his connection was to both Cockshutt and Crossmeare simultaneously. This might be because (i) he lived in one of them but was also somehow substantially connected to the other, or (ii) one of them was a sub-unit of the other (perhaps one was a parish, the other a hamlet within that parish), so that it was possible to belong to both simultaneously. Regards, Matt Tompkins Blaston, Leics

>'als' is an abbreviation of 'alias', which means 'otherwise'. It appears in old >records almost exclusively to introduce an alternative surname (though I have >once or twice seen it used for an alternative forename), which is why in modern >English it has become a noun meaning a substitute name - as you said. I don't >think I've never seen it used it to indicate alternative names of a place, >though there's really no logical reason why it shouldn't have been. It is quite a frequent usage, which I am sure you will started finding from tomorrow. Lavendon als Landon, Ravenstone als Raunston, Wyrardisbury als Wraysbury. Aston Sandford als Aston Blank als Cold Aston in Bucks, for example. (*The last has almost as many aliases as houses) > >My first reaction would be that in this case it means that Francis Lloyd's >residence was in a place called Cockshutt otherwise Crossmeare. But if you say >these were two separate places The logical explanation is that they were not then totally distinct places, but that one included the other -possibly one was the parish and one a hamlet in the parish. This again is often found, binding together places which on the map appear to be distinct. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

I don't know if this comment will help in any way at all but going on from what Eve has written, here is an example of where I live and how places are referred to now or in the recent past. I live on a long lane that dominates the village or township of Mellor. This lane is around two miles long from start to finish and, traditionally, but still among the locals, it is divided into various little sections by locally known names, e.g. Cataract Brow, School Row, White Row. These are not the sort of names that will get you very far if you were to include them in your postal address as only our local post lady who lives further up the lane would know where these places were. The Post Office gave out numbers in the late 1950s and these have now taken root (it took a while for people to get used to using them - a change-over of population has hastened this). When there is a long road, people find it necessary to describe to others just where abouts along it they live or to give directions to any particular house. So perhaps Crossmear was a way of saying where in Cockshutt this house was situated, Cockshutt being the name of the larger part and Crossmear being a smaller section of it. This, of course, is very much as Eve has described but even the smaller parts can be broken down into yet smaller until the particular dwelling has been pinpointed so perhaps now we would give the "address" as Francis Lloyd , Crossmear, Cockshutt, then maybe the largest town or city followed by the county. Audrey ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eve McLaughlin" <eve@varneys.demon.co.uk> To: <OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 10:17 PM Subject: Re: [OEL] Als > > >'als' is an abbreviation of 'alias', which means 'otherwise'. It appears in old > >records almost exclusively to introduce an alternative surname (though I have > >once or twice seen it used for an alternative forename), which is why in modern > >English it has become a noun meaning a substitute name - as you said. I don't > >think I've never seen it used it to indicate alternative names of a place, > >though there's really no logical reason why it shouldn't have been. > It is quite a frequent usage, which I am sure you will started finding > from tomorrow. Lavendon als Landon, Ravenstone als Raunston, > Wyrardisbury als Wraysbury. Aston Sandford als Aston Blank als Cold > Aston in Bucks, for example. (*The last has almost as many aliases as > houses) > > > >My first reaction would be that in this case it means that Francis Lloyd's > >residence was in a place called Cockshutt otherwise Crossmeare. But if you say > >these were two separate places > The logical explanation is that they were not then totally distinct > places, but that one included the other -possibly one was the parish and > one a hamlet in the parish. This again is often found, binding together > places which on the map appear to be distinct. > > -- > Eve McLaughlin > > Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians > Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society > > > ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== > OLD-ENGLISH Web Page > http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/ > >