Tenn.
In a census birthplace column, Tenn. is the abbreviation for Tennessee.
Tenn. is an older abbreviation of Tennessee, 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.
Tenn. is easy to misread as Penn. in old handwriting, and indexes sometimes get it wrong. If a family's other records point south, check the image.
As seen in a recordBirthplace column of the 1860 census
Zach. Pruitt, 22, Farmer, Tenn.
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Tenn.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/tenn. Last checked 2026-10-01.