As I replied to Tom earlier, that penned "double S" threw me for one huge
loop long ago.  Bass was Baff and Moss was Moff etc.  I was so confused
until a friend at the company Font Bros. straightened me out.  In all
actuality, handwriting back then was absolutely gorgeous compared to modern
day.

On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 12:56 PM, Elizabeth Shown Mills
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> >My great grandfather, Dempsey Lassiter, was listed in the 1870 Census in
> Nansemond County as "Laffiter"     Then someone who transcribed it, changed
> it to "La PE ter".  The only way I knew it was my family was by all the
> children's names.
>
> Actually, that 1870 census entry does identify your great grandfather as
> Dempsey Lassiter. It simply uses the older long-tail style of penning the
> double-s.
>
> Modern transcribers unfamiliar with that penmanship style often render the
> long-tail double-s as a "p" or an "f," resulting in such incongruities as
> "Jeffe," "Jeppe," "Rupell" and "Mipipippi."
>
> Elizabeth
>
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-- 
Shirley Cox Schroeder

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