Actually, that "f" isn't really an "f" in Mafsey. It was just the style of the time in longhand cursive writing. When there was a double "s" in the word, the first "s" was called a "long s" or "leading s". This "leading s" loops up and around and down like the top part of a cursive "f", but if you look closely, you can see that at the bottom the curve loops back to the left (as with the lower part of a cursive "p" or "g") instead of to the right (as with a cursive "f"). The second "s" would be written as a normal "s". But sometimes the second "s" would be written so close to the first "long s" that they looked like a "p" instead of "ss". I have found Massey transcribed as Mafsey and Mapey, so you just have to train your mind to recognize what it should be.... > Subject: Re: [MASSEY-L] Spellings of Massey > Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2001 19:25:13 -0500 > From: "J. Troy Massey" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > > Concerning Mafsey: > > My understanding was that the spelling of MAFSEY came about due to the > presses of the time when the name was written, substituted an f for an s, > thus that spelling. Then when our people saw that in print, wrote > accordingly BUT they all knew their correct spelling was MASSEY. > >