Daily AncestorOld American records are full of short words with a tiny letter floating above them: Wm, Jno, Saml, Recd, Genl. This is not sloppy writing. It was the standard way to abbreviate, taught in schools and used by clerks, merchants and officers from colonial days until about 1880. The raised letter is usually the LAST letter (or last two) of the full word, and a dot, a dash or two small marks under it often say "this word is shortened".
The trick is to read the beginning and the end, then fill in the middle. Wm is W...m, so William. Jno is J, n, o, the old short form of John (it comes from the Latin Johannes), and it never means Jonathan. Once you know a dozen common ones, a whole page of names, dates and money suddenly opens up. The examples below all come from real receipts, notes and letters written between 1779 and 1865.
