Twp.

Twp. stands for township. Census pages, tax lists and land records name the township where a family lived, which tells you which local offices kept records about them.

There are two kinds: civil townships with their own officials, and survey townships, the six mile squares used in public land surveys. A heading like Union Twp. on a census page is the civil kind. Many states reused the same township names in county after county, so always note the county too.