It's time for this week's Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree! Thanks to everyone who has sent in a Quick Tip. Please keep them coming so that we can keep this tradition going. You can send your tips to ADNeditor@ancestry.com.

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please state so clearly in your message.

Have a great day!
Juliana

Swedish Voters of Chicago, 1888
Referring to today's tip about the Chicago Voters, you might want to know that Nils William Olsson, F.A.S.G., of Winter Park, FL, in 2000 published a book "Swedish Voters of Chicago 1888" in which he had identified several hundreds of them in other sources like the "Chicago City Directory" or the records of the Swedish American churches of the area. In this way he helped their descendants to find out more about their immigrating ancestor. Chicago in 1900 had more Swedes than Gothenburg, the second-largest city in Sweden.

Elisabeth Thorsell
www.etgenealogy.se
Swedish Genealogist, Writer, and Editor, "Swedish American Genealogist"

Watch for Abbreviations
In the 9 March 2005 edition of Ancestry Daily News Michael wrote a column titled "More 1880 Search Options."

He gave several examples of abbreviations for states to consider. Many of us tend to use current postal service abbreviations as our base when thinking of these abbreviations. I am very confused by the currently accepted abbreviations. I never know whether AL refers to Alaska or Alabama. And is MI for Michigan or Mississippi? Is MO for Missouri or Montana? Does MISS stand for Missouri or for Mississippi? For this reason I always spell the state out completely. Plus some people do not go by the usual abbreviations.

Also, the differences between the typed or printed word, and handwriting needs to be carefully considered. When handwritten, the abbreviations for Utah and Vermont (UT and VT) can easily be confused. I have had mail delayed several days because it was sent to the other state, in spite of the zip code!

In addition, we need to think like the census taker at the time.

Here is an actual example, one of many for this state. Look at image 5 of 31 for the 1850 census for Cheshire, Berkshire County, Massachusetts and the Russell B. Wolcott family. This family was indexed with the children being born in Mississippi (MS apparently being the current abbreviation for that state). I simply cannot see a family in Massachusetts going to Mississippi every two or three years for the birth of a child. Since the entire page is for Massachusetts residents, it seems logical to me to assume that the MS abbreviation on this page actually refers to Massachusetts (not to Mississippi). Massachusetts is a long word to write and I can see why the census taker used MS instead.

Ruth Ann Baker

Allow for the Unexpected
I was looking for and found the family name of HURN in the 1871 & 1891 Census returns for Norfolk in England, but couldn't understand why I couldn't find them for 1881. I knew there were variations of the spelling, like HURNE, HEARN, & HEARNE, but without the help of a complete stranger I would never have thought to look for AURN. This unlikely to be a typographical error, so I can only presume someone had difficulty in deciphering the Census taker's handwriting.

Thanks again stranger!
Jan Ross