<div dir="ltr">Dear Elizabeth,<div><br></div><div>Love questions like this! Looked up this MJ Monfore on Ancestry, on the off-chance he <i>was</i> 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.</div><div><br></div><div>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...")</div><div><br></div><div>Hopefully this helped!</div><div><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">---</div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">Cameron Crawford</div><div style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">he/him/his</div><font color="#888888">Library Assistant III - Page Supervisor</font><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">Baldwin Public Library</span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><span style="color:rgb(136,136,136)">248-554-4692</span><br style="color:rgb(136,136,136)"><a href="mailto:cameron.crawford@baldwinlib.org" target="_blank">cameron.crawford<font color="#1155cc">@baldwinlib.org</font></a><br></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 1:58 PM Elizabeth Campion via Michlib-l <<a href="mailto:michlib-l@mcls.org">michlib-l@mcls.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><img src="cid:18ef7768d3d40c3c72a1" style="max-width: 100%;">Hi! This is perhaps slightly off-topic but seems a great place to likely find an answer. <div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>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:<br><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">M. J. Monfore Dr. <br>
Mary D. Monfore for pasture of horses + cow. Sometimes more cows + horses.<br>
M. J. Monfore
Dr. <br>
To A. J. M. Gillespie + Mary Amelia Monfore for pasture of horse + cow<br>
M.J. Monfore Dr. <br>
to Amelia Monfore + A. J.M. Gillespie for pasture of horses + cow.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">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. <br>
Judson lost money in machinery and she knew it before marriage. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">She is very deceitful. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">If anyone has any thoughts about the meaning of Dr. in this context, I would love to hear them. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Thanks, </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Elizabeth Campion, Librarian<br>Shelby Township Library<br>52610 Van Dyke<br>Shelby Township, MI 48316<br>586-739-7414</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p></div></div>
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