Penn.
In a census birthplace column, Penn. is the abbreviation for Pennsylvania.
Penn. is an older abbreviation of Pennsylvania, 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.
Pa. and Penna. are other common forms. Old handwriting can make Penn. look like Tenn., so compare it with how the same census taker wrote Tennessee on other lines.
As seen in a recordBirthplace column of the 1860 census
Fredk. Snyder, 31, Miller, Penn.
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Penn.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/penn. Last checked 2026-10-01.