Genealogy Chat

Please can anyone throow some light on this for me, I keep coming across it, Many thanks, Ruth

Could it be a typing error for John?

It occurs an awful lot to be a typo. I did wonder i it was transcribers misreading THO for Thomas...

Ruth I always took it to mean JONATHAN Vera Manchester, LAN

Jno IS an abbreviation for John - similarly Thos for Thomas, Chas for Charles etc. Qhite a common 'affectation' in Victorian times. Graham

Thanks for this Graham. Though I do wonder what was going through their minds when they decided to rearrange the letters of a four letter name to make a three letter abbreviation!!!!!!

Hi all, I notice that there does seem to be some confusion amongst members regarding the way names have been written. At various times in the Parish Registers the ?Curate? liked to show off his learning by Latinising names. Hence you will find Guilielmus for William, Johannes for John (and Johanna for Joan) Maria for Mary and a variety of male names ending in --us and female names ending in --a. Another oddity I have come across is Christopher. Having the base of "Christ" this was often written as "X" hence Xfer, Xtopher and I have even seen Xphopher. We must always remember that writing styles, and indeed the English language, have changed considerably over the Centuries. If you do come across something you are having trouble reading, try to make a copy of it. There are experts who can translate for you. Also for example Census returns. If you are trying to read a census I suggest you start at the beginning, read what you can make out to the end. Then start again and do the same thing over and over. Eventually you will become accustomed to the quirkish writing style of the enumerator and be able to realise that what you had taken as Croft was really Cross, Ibis is really Webb, and that Albertus was known to the world as Uncle Bert. Jim

I'm with Vera on this one...I've always understood it was the shortened form of Jonathan. Beryl, Darlington DUR

Having just posted my previous message I stand corrected!! I have a copy of a booklet entitled 'Reading Old Handwriting' from the excellent McLaughlin Guides and it says in there..quote... 'Common Christian names are regularly shortened, in Latin or English forms Joh, Jo:, Ioh, Jno = JOHN Jon, Jona = JONATHAN Hen; Hy. = Henry Tho, Thos, Ths = Thomas Jas, Jac(obus) = James Will, Willm, Wm, Guiliel, Gul = William The rest of the examples are pretty straightforward so I wont list them. It is full of useful info and only cost me £l.50 although probably costs a bit more now..well worth investing in. Beryl Darlington DUR

Thanks Beryl, this is really useful

We all live and learn! Isn't it great?

By the way .... there is a tutorial on reading old handwriting at http://www.scan.org.uk/researchrtools/handwriting/onehourtut.htm/ It actually covers Scottish handwriting but still valid for other parts of the UK. MB

If you are having trouble reading old writing I suggest you try to get a copy of "Sixteenth and seventeenth century wills, inventories and other probate documents" compiled by Ann Rycraft. Published by the University of York in 1973. It has a picture of the original on one page, and on the next the transliteration into modern type. Jim

There is also a book "Discovering Old Handwriting" from Shire Publications. http: // www . shirebooks . co . uk / Genealogy / genealogy2-bl . htm # oldhan Sorry had to insert spaces because of the annoying habit of Genes Connected of deliberately corrupting URL's MB

Thanks, all. Have had this in my family where there are lots of Jonas's and I'd always assumed it was for that.....