Allcensus since 1997

Handwriting

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Also check out Deciphering Old Handwriting by Sabina J. Murray.

Handwriting often differed significantly in the last several centuries from that which we use today. To make matters worse, some people wrote quite differently from others of the same time. To help you in your research, we have listed below,  some examples of ways that letters were made and names abbreviated. This is by no means, a complete list but it is a good start and should prove quite helpful to many of you.

	Zeros often look like eleven		Abbreviation for Abraham with dots (..) under the 'm'
	Abbreviation for Abraham with line under the 'm'		Albert
	Alexander		Alfred
	Alfred		Andrew
	August or Augustus		Benjamin
	Bridget		Caroline
	Catherine		Charles
	Charlotte		Charlotte
	Charlotte		Daniel
	"ditto"		Dominick
	Edward		Edward
	Elisabeth		Elisha
	Eugene or Eugenia		Fannie
	Felicia		Ferdinand
	Ferdinand		George
	Gottfried		Gustave
	Harvey		Henrietta or Henriette
	Henry		Herman
	Hoffman		Howard
	"J" often looks like "I"		Jackson
	Jeramy		Jesse, notice the "ss" looks like "ps"
	Jonathon		Jonathon
	Joseph		Joseph
	Josephine		Josephine
	Lionel or Leonel, notice how much like an "S" the "L" is		Louise, again the "L" looks more like "S"
	Mansfield		Margaret
	Mathew		Obadiah
	Patrick		Patrick
	Preston		Rachel
	Richard		Robert
	Samuel		Senior
	Sigmond		Sophronia
	Sophronia		"ss" as in Tennessee is often written as "ps" or occasionally as "pp"
	Theodore		Thomas
	Virginia		William
	Zebadiah or Zebaneser