My experience: Jno. = Jonathan Jas. = James -----Original Message----- From: Harold Miller <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: Friday, February 19, 1999 8:17 PM Subject: why abbreviate? >>>Hi again. >>> >> >>At 12:48 PM 2/19/99 -0800, James H Granger wrote: >>>Sandy, >>>You had better listen to Barbara. She is correct. Think about it--why >>>would anyone "abbreviate" a four-letter word to three letters and a period?? >>>:=) >>>Jim Granger >>>- > > >About the abbreviation of John or Jonathan as Jno......this was discussed a >while back on another list. I did not understand either, till someone >mentioned that in early days, writing was done with a quill, paper and ink >were very costly. Also, try to write with a quill. So any way they could >cut corners, save on writing, save on ink and paper - they used it. Thus >many, many words were abbreviated. Also explains the way some of the >letters were written. Wm was William, etc. Now as to there being a >universal abbreviation.....it was more left up to the person doing the >writing. Therefore, we now wonder if Jno was John or something else. And >the answer, it depends. While maybe many used it for John, it could also be >Jonathon. Jas - you would think Jason, but I found where it was Jasper. So >don't think there is only one correct answer. > >And talking about paper being costly.....they would write in the margins. >Also, they would sometimes take a written letter, turn it around and write >in between the previous written lines. Saved paper. Also makes it really >interesting to now try to read some of these letters. > >Mary [email protected] > > >==== OLD-FREDERICK-CO-VA Mailing List ==== >Visit the Frederick County,VA USGenWeb Home Page! >http://www.rootsweb.com/~vafreder/frederic.htm >