Abbreviations · card W

wit.

Wit. means witness: the names after it are the people who watched a will, deed or marriage being signed.

Wit. or wits. marks the witnesses to a document. Wills, deeds and marriage bonds needed witnesses who could later swear the document was genuine.

Witnesses were often neighbors, in-laws or the clerk who wrote the document. A repeated witness across several family papers can point to a relative or close associate worth researching.

As seen in a recordWitness lines at the end of a will
Wit.: Benj. Ross, Danl. Webb, Eliz. Webb (her mark)
How to cite this page

Daily Ancestor. "wit.." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/abbreviations/wit. Last checked 2026-10-01.

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