Using Abbreviation Keys

Abbreviations are used in several fields in the document list on the Case Details screen. The abbreviations in the Description field are symbols which describe the physical appearance of the document. See the Document Description Abbreviations for an explanation of the codes in this field.

The courthouses and repositories from which we obtained images of the documents are listed in the Location of Original or Location of Copy fields. The full names and locations of the repositories are listed in the Repository Abbreviations. These abbreviations are primarily from Library of Congress, Symbols of American Libraries, 14th Edition, Washington, D.C.: Cataloguing Distribution Service, 1992.

Editors have accessioned some document transcriptions from secondary sources, documentary editions, and sales/auction catalogs because they were unable to locate the manuscript document. See Printed Sources Abbreviations for a complete description of these sources.

Several abbreviations are used within the Collection field. In the example above, the original bill for divorce is located at Brown University, John Hay Library (RPB-JH) in the Lincoln collection. The original of the subpoena in chancery is from the Illinois Regional Archives Depository at the University of Illinois at Springfield (ISRAD). In the collection field, SANCC refers to Sangamon County Circuit Court records. (See County and Court Abbreviations and Repository Abbreviations.)

Docket book codes are used in the Location of Original, Copy Location, and Collection fields. Docket books from each repository or county court house were given numerical identifiers beginning with DK. For the complete name of the docket book, see Docket Book Abbreviations.

In addition to the abbreviations mentioned above, the following abbreviations are used within the fields Location of Original, Collection, and Location of Copy:

bx	box
cf	case file
fol.	folio (number
mf	microfilm (number, reel: frame)
p.	page (number)
RG	record group (number
SC	small collection (number)

Two commonly cited collections were also abbreviated:

HW	The Herndon-Weik Collection at the Library of Congress
RLT	The Robert Todd Lincoln Collection at the Library of Congress

For more information about document location, see Location and Collection of a Document.