The problem I've occasionally encountered is the interpretation of Jas and 
Jos. They look amazingly alike when handwritten and I've often found Jos 
transcribed as Jas or James and Jas transcribed as Jos or Joseph.

Nel Hatcher

To me this is an excellent reason to transcribe the original doc verbatim 
and not guess at the intent of the scribe. If looking at an abstract, better 
find a copy of the original instead of trying to guess at the intent.

I spent some time trying to find a parent of my 4th ggrandmother whose 
father's name appeared in a Goodpature's History as John Stroud. Actually, 
her father's name was Joseph Stroud as my research proved. My guess is the 
info gatherer for Goodspeed's books abbreviated Joseph in such a way that it 
was transcribed as John and since it appeared as John in a "real" book, hard 
cover, and all, we know his name forever more will be John no matter the 
name his mother gave him. 

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