Chapman code

3-letter codes used in genealogy

Chapman codes are a set of 3-letter codes used in genealogy to identify the administrative divisions in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

Use

They were created by the historian, Dr. Colin R Chapman, in the late 1970s, and as intended, provide a widely used shorthand in genealogy which follows the common practice of describing areas in terms of the counties existing in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Other uses

Chapman codes have no mapping, postal or administrative use. They can however be useful for disambiguation by postal services where a full county name or traditional abbreviation is not supplied after a place name which has more than one occurrence, a particular problem where these are post towns such as Richmond.

Country codes

  • CHI Channel Islands
  • ENG England
  • IOM Isle of Man
  • IRL Ireland
  • NIR Northern Ireland
  • SCT Scotland
  • WLS Wales
  • ALL All countries

Channel Islands

  • ALD Alderney
  • GSY Guernsey
  • JSY Jersey
  • SRK Sark

England

Historic counties

Administrative areas

Scotland

Historic counties

1975–1996 regions

Wales

Historic counties

1974–1996

Northern Ireland

Ireland

See also

References

  • The Chapman County Code for British Isles Counties, Lochin Publishing, accessed 13 October 2019