Dear Elizabeth,

Love questions like this! Looked up this MJ Monfore on Ancestry, on the off-chance he was a doctor (and they simply would have put the dr. at the end rather than before a given name) - but he was definitely a farmer.

Quick search on wiktionary indicates this abbreviation is used to indicate a debtor? That seems to align with the following sentence after each instance ("Debtor to Amelia Monfore...")

Hopefully this helped!

---

Cameron Crawford

he/him/his

Library Assistant III - Page Supervisor
Baldwin Public Library
248-554-4692
cameron.crawford@baldwinlib.org

On Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 1:58 PM Elizabeth Campion via Michlib-l <michlib-l@mcls.org> wrote:

Hi! This is perhaps slightly off-topic but seems a great place to likely find an answer. 

A woman in California recently sent a very old composition book to our library because there is writing in the book referencing the village that was once where our library now stands. I have been transcribing and digitizing the book for historical records. There is an abbreviation used frequently throughout the book that I can not interpret. 

It is 'Dr.' but it is not used in a common usage like Doctor or Drive. I'm including a picture of a page in the book where the abbreviation appears frequently. The transcription is as follows:

M. J. Monfore                            Dr.
Mary D. Monfore for pasture of horses + cow. Sometimes more cows + horses.
M. J. Monfore                            Dr.
To A. J. M. Gillespie + Mary Amelia Monfore for pasture of horse + cow
M.J. Monfore                             Dr.
to Amelia Monfore + A. J.M. Gillespie for pasture of horses + cow.

Maria wants but never worked like us. She has been stronger than we but did not want to work. Amelia has a lame arm from infancy.
Judson lost money in machinery and she knew it before marriage.

She is very deceitful.

If anyone has any thoughts about the meaning of Dr. in this context, I would love to hear them. 

Thanks, 

Elizabeth Campion, Librarian
Shelby Township Library
52610 Van Dyke
Shelby Township, MI 48316
586-739-7414

 

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