Daily Ancestorwid.
Wid. means widow, a woman whose husband had died and who had not remarried; the related widr. means widower.
Wid. is the usual short form of widow in tax lists, church records, directories and census pages. A woman listed as Wid. Sarah Cole, or Cole, Sarah, wid. of Jno., is a widow; directories often add the late husband's name.
In Latin records the same idea is vid., for vidua (widow) or viduus (widower). Because tax lists often named widows as heads of household, wid. can help you narrow down when a husband died.
As seen in a recordEntry in a nineteenth century city directory
Cole, Sarah, wid. Jno., h. 9 Elm
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "wid.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/wid. Last checked 2026-10-01.