What does "Do agt for" mean in Georgia Property Tax Digests?

Question

While reviewing the digital image of a record from the Ancestry.com collection, "Georgia, Property Tax Digests, 1793-1893," I found this phrase several times on the page: "Do agt for" followed by a person name.

I'm not even sure that I'm transcribing it right, so I'm including a picture which shows 2 occurrences. enter image description here

I suspect there may be an abbreviation involved. I suspect that understanding this entry may give a hint to the relationship between the names involved.

According to Ancestry.com, these records represent the "tax digest books for 135 Georgia counties from 1793 - 1893." For those with Ancestry.com access, you can see the entire page here

GeneJ · Answer 1 · 2012-12-07T22:14:18.913

6

I suspect "Do" represents "Ditto." See Wikipedia, "Ditto Mark," for the passage, "The abbreviation do. is also used."

I suspect also that "agt" represents "agent." See All-Acronyms.com for "agt-agent."

I have not worked with the Georgia records before, but the names in the first column appear as obligors (to the tax) or payors. In this case, William Da __ sey appears obligated or to have paid taxes on his own account, but he also appears obligated or to have paid taxes as the agent for account of Sarah Da __ sey.

edited Dec 07 '12 at 22:14

answered Dec 07 '12 at 19:15

GeneJ

8,527
1
24
51

I was going to suggest the same thing; could agt be agent? – Gene Golovchinsky Dec 07 '12 at 19:16
My apologies. I meant to give the context but got distracted. I have added the context as well as a link to the source on ancestry.com. – woman among men Dec 07 '12 at 19:20
@womanamongmen All okay. I took the liberty of inserting a few more comments into the question. If this would not have been your intent, you can "edit" my edit and roll it back. – GeneJ Dec 07 '12 at 19:25
2

The edits are appropriate. We'll all write better posts if we read better posts. – woman among men Dec 07 '12 at 19:26
@womanamongmen It's a really good question; thanks for sharing. – GeneJ Dec 07 '12 at 19:32

Ezri Rediker · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-08T02:19:53.650

A search pertaining to the acronym agt yielded this fantastic snippet from ancestry.com. Hope this helps.: }

Agents

Agents, sometimes abbreviated Agt, represented the person who owed the tax. Women property holders often had men represent them on tax lists. The agent might be a family member, or he might represent a group who had sent one person to pay their taxes rather than all of them making the trip.

http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1729

What does "Do agt for" mean in Georgia Property Tax Digests?

2 Answers2