Genealogy Style Sheet
Most genealogies typically following Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. Here are some common styles used in genealogy.
Style
- Spell out numbers one through one hundred. There are exceptions to this, however, so consult Chicago Manual of Style.
- Spell out centuries, e.g., nineteenth century, not 19th century.
- No apostrophes in plurals of years, e.g., 1890s, not 1890’s
- Dates should be written as day, month, and full year, e.g. 17 October 1999.
- If only a month and day, then October 17, not 17 October.
- Use serial commas, e.g., red, white, and blue; not red, white and blue.
- Initials after names should have no periods, e.g., Nancy Thistlebottom, CG.
- Use small caps for initials, not all caps, e.g. CG, not CG
- Use small caps for A.M. and P.M.
- No comma between a surname and senior or junior, e.g., Robert Evans Jr.
- Avoid sexist language. Either change the sentence to a plural, or use he or she, him or her. Or alternate use of he and she in examples. Do not use he/she, him/her, or s/he. Replace “manmade” with “artificial” or “synthetic,” replace “mankind” with “humanity,” replace “layman” with “lay person,” etc. A possible exception is if the author is using a gender specific pronoun when referencing historical situations where only men or women participated. “If your ancestor served in the Revolutionary War, then he…”
- Web site addresses should be written as
within text or citations. If listed in a resource list, do not use the <>.
Words (commonly used or misused)
- African-American. Use hyphen when used as a compound modifier, e.g. African-American genealogy. No hyphen when used as noun, e.g., She is African American.
- Ahnentafel
- ancestor, not direct ancestor (all of your ancestors are “direct” ancestors)
- appendixes, not appendices
- base line (two words)
- backward/forward, not backwards/forwards
- birth date (two words)
- birthplace (one word)
- Brøderbund
- bylaws, not by-laws
- CD-ROM, not CD-Rom
- census, censuses
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (day is not capitalized)
- courthouse, not court house
- database (one word)
- descendant, not direct descendant
- enumeration district (In text, spell out and lower case. In a record citation, use E.D.)
- e-mail (lower case)
- family Bible (cap Bible)
- Family History Library, Family History Centers (cap)
- FamilySearch (one word)
- fax (lower case)
- great-grandfather/mother (use hyphen) or great-great-grandfather/mother
- indexes, not indices
- Internet (cap)
- internment vs. interment. Interment is the act of being interned, such as in a prisoner of war camp; interment is the act of burial.
- immigrate vs. emigrate/immigrant vs. emigrant. Immigrate/immigrate is used when the person enters the country;
- migrate/emigrant is used when the person is leaving the country; e.g., He emigrated from Italy. He immigrated to America.
- keynote speaker, not key-note or key note
- lectern, podium: a speaker stands behind a lectern and on a podium
- mother-in-law, father-in-law; plural mothers-in-law, fathers-in-law
- National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution (not National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution)
- National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (ital)
- NUCMC (Roman, all caps)
- New Style calendar (no hyphen, and cap)
- Old Style calendar (no hyphen, and cap)
- online, not on-line
- Periodical Source Index (italicize when written out)
- PERSI (Roman, all caps)
- quitclaim (one word); but quit rent (two words)
- Reverend: precede with “the” when Reverend is spelled out and used before a person’s name; do not precede with “the” when using the abbreviation Rev., e.g. the Reverend Jacob Shough, Rev. Shough
- self-addressed, stamped envelope or an SASE
- state names: use two-letter postal abbreviations in addresses; spell out names of states in text.
- stepbrother/father/mother/sister (one word, no hyphen)
- syllabus, syllabuses
- teenage or teenager; one word, no hyphen
- toward, not towards
- United States; spell out when used as a noun; U.S. (no spaces) when used as an adjective
- vice president (no hyphen)
- videotape (one word)
- Web site (cap Web)



