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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Northumberland => Topic started by: lazytee on Wednesday 22 June 22 18:04 BST (UK)
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Hallo, Northumbrian RootsChatters!
Can anybody tell me, please, whether, in the Hexham parish registers, "ALD" is a regular abbreviation for Allendale?
Much obliged,
Lazytee
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It would be useful if you could point us in the direction of some actual examples, please.
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Thank you for your interest, Jen.
I'm afraid the only example I have is for the marriage on 10th April 1705 of Thomas Wiggan and Elizabeth Forrester. The groom's parish is ALD and the bride's is Ardley.
I think ALD must mean Allendale as there was a large Wigham family there. As far as I know Ardley is not a parish. It is a very small community not far from Whitley Chapel, to the south of Hexham. I daresay Hexham was a convenient place for both families to foregather.
If anyone could confirm the abbreviation, I would be most grateful.
Hazel.
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There are some transcriptions at the library, I will try to pop in in the next few days and take a look for you.
Added: I see that the letters ALD appear on a transcriptions sourced from the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society. Some of their other Hexham transcriptions also appear to contain strange abbreviations. I should think that if you bought their complete book of transcriptions your would find somewhere an index of all the various abbreviations used.
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Jen:
Thank you for offering to go to your library on my behalf. I live in Sussex so I cannot find out locally. I got the transcription from FindMyPast.
I seem to remember that I found another abbreviation in the Hexham parish registers. It was DSG, which I discovered meant Durham Saint Giles.
It seems that Hexham has some abbreviations peculiar to the parish or the transcriber.
Thanks again for your help. I really appreciate it.
Regards,
Hazel.
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The full transcription reveals all :)
Thos Wiggan yeo[man] of Catton, p[arish] of Allendale
Eliz. Forrester sp[inster] of Ardley
m[arrie]d at Hexham.
I suspect that when NDFHS did their transcriptions, which are now on FindMyPast they used standardised abbreviations for the parishes. I checked a few other abbreviations in the transcriptions which turn out to be
HUN - Hunstanworth
SIM - Simonburn
SLA - Slaley
As you say, Ardley was a small settlement in 'The Shire' which was at that time still part of the parish of Hexham, but was served by St Helens Whitley Chapel, which was a Chapel of Ease to Hexham Abbey.
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Thank you so much, Jen, for going to such a lot of trouble for me. It is really good to get a proper full transcription of the entry in the Hexham marriage register that I wanted. It even gives me a little extra information about Thomas, and I was glad to have ALD confirmed as Allendale.
My question has now been fully answered, so I will close the topic.
Many thanks to all who read my post.
Hazel.