Mich.
In a census birthplace column, Mich. is the abbreviation for Michigan.
Mich. is an older abbreviation of Michigan, used long before the two letter postal codes. Census takers were allowed to abbreviate state names in the place of birth column, so abbreviated state names are common in the birthplace column of nineteenth century census pages.
The same letters before a surname stand for the first name Michael, so read it by position: in the birthplace column it is the state.
As seen in a recordBirthplace column of the 1870 census
Chas. Miller, 14, Mich.
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Mich.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/mich-state. Last checked 2026-10-01.