I believe the usage of inst. means the present month, ult. means previous month. Not sure, I was told that by someone a while back.... -----Original Message----- From: Chochoruss@aol.com Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2011 8:25 PM To: vashenan@rootsweb.com Subject: [VASHENAN] The word instituted in reference to marriage in the1830's. Vashenan Subscribers, I may be completely off base here, but since this was a German Reformed Church newspaper, written back in the 1830's, I believe that the connotation here and the word inst. may have a different meaning then that of today's society. Instead of the word inst. they should have used ordained. If you read the following you will see what I mean: "On the 3rd inst. by Rev. W. F. Colliflower, Mr. William Printz to Miss Lydia Coffelt, both of Shenandoah County, VA." The key here is instituted by Rev. W. F. Colliflower. He was the one ordaining or instituting the marriage. Back then in their world society, the Biblical Marriage was an institution of God and was and is still, a continuation of His work of creation. In the Scriptures, marriage is an institution in society that is of divine origin. It is governed by the laws of God and by the regulations of the society in which one lives to the extent that they do not conflict with the laws of God and Rev. W. F. Colliflower was the vessel ordaining the marriage. Today, the worldly interpretation would be entirely different as shown by the responses. Gloria B. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to VASHENAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message