Leeson's letters

LEESON'S LETTERS

At this site, Leeson's Letters are the references enclosed in curved brakets ( ).

Leeson's Letters have tended to fall out of use with the growth of proprietory family history software, but are still very useful. On this site they are a handy way of dividing the time scale into manageable periods covering three decades.

But the main use for Leeson's Letters is in researching ancestors. One frequently comes across references to people who are clearly different but bear the same names. Often the dates of birth are not known until later, if ever. Leeson's letters is a way of tagging the names so that the person is identified by his generation until more precise dates can be established.

For example suppose we come across two John Smith's whose birth dates are unknown. From their relationships to other people we may be able to determine that one John Smith was born in the early 1800s, and that the other was his father and therefore probably born in the late 1700s. We can therefore provisionally identify them as John SMITH (O) and John SMITH (N) respectively.

The range of dates for Leeson's Letters are as follows.

A = 1380-1409
B = 1410-1439
C = 1440-1469
D = 1470-1499
E = 1500-1529
F = 1530-1559
G = 1560-1589
H = 1590-1619
I = 1620-1619
J = 1650-1679
K = 1680-1709
L = 1710-1739
M = 1740-1769
N = 1770-1799
O = 1800-1829
P = 1830-1859
Q = 1860-1889
R = 1890-1919
S = 1920-1949
T = 1950-1979
U = 1980-2009