Kirkpatrick Genealogy

Coded Line Summaries

KIRKPATRICKS IN AMERICA BEFORE 1800
CODED FAMILIES INTRODUCTION

If you find I am leaving out any coded lines that have been in the Kirkpatrick Newsletter, please inform me of which ones and which issue they were in. If you find any errors in these summaries, please let me know. I scanned them in using OCR and may have missed some errors.

There are not coded lines for every state, since there is a great chance that branches in other states, particularly west of the Mississippi River, descend from one of the original colonies. The KA will only recognize new coded lines if they have at least three generations and preferrably go back to before 1800. (Otherwise, they become an "uncoded family).

Introduction: William (Bill) R. Kirkpatrick (dec.) of Santa Clara, CA started using the two letter state designations, plus a number, to code the early Kirkpatrick families. The state designation, such as PA for Pennsylvannia, is intended to indicate the best estimate of the region of origin in the United States of a particular family line of descent. The number is assigned in sequential manner as research turns up additional families. Some of these code assignments, NJ-1 thru NJ-7, were given in NL V.2, #4, pp 8-20.

There is, of course, a certain amount of ambiguity in the selection of the state of origin as census records, family tradition etc. do not always agree. An informal rule, that Bill and I (George Kirkpatrick, editor of Kirkpatrick Newsletter) used to develop a particular family line, was to permit only the first generation to be established by family tradition. This rule recognizes that there is some merit in the information handed down in a family but not documented, however, an additional record is needed to establish the origin state such as a county history.

The data for the succeeding generations should be verified by the usual methods such as family records (Bible), county histories, census, tax records, deeds, wills etc. By extension, the informal rule also restricted the use of family tradition to bridge a generation gap. Two files would be maintained, such as a PA-# and an OH-# until a connection could be verified. The association recommends that sources be shown for all early entries, however, the association cannot assure the accuracy of data presented in the newsletter.

Entries followed by the initials WRK are taken from Bill's files for work that he completed prior to January 1990. Some other abbreviations, as follows, are also used for words used repetitively.

AFN	allied family names (by marriage, first two generations)
b	born
bib	bibliography (N/A-Order original newsletter)
bio	biography
ca	approximately (circa)
cem	cemetery
ch	children
Co	county
d	died
f	father
gf/gm	grandfather/grandmother
ggf/ggm	great grandfather etc.
K -	Kirkpatrick
KA	Kirkpatrick Association
KNL	Kirkpatrick Newsletter (a publication of KA)
m	married
P/pp	page/(s)
RAP	researcher/author/publisher (N/A-Order original newsletter)
TAR	The American Register (John L. Shawver, editor)
v -	Volume

CODED LINES

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This page created 01 Sep 1997 (revised 16 Dec 1997) by Daniel C. Kirkpatrick (kirkpatrick@oocities.com)

©1997 Daniel C. Kirkpatrick
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