Wm or William?
Came across this again recently and just wanted to clarify.
Its not often I see names that are shortened, but this one seems to be the most common.
For example: Johnson, Wm. D
Is Wm, the name William? Ive always assumed it was. When I find this while indexing I usually just put Wm. as its written, but should I be listing it as William? I worry that a descendant might have a harder time looking for their relatives, if they are using the name William vs Wm, or will they?
And has anyone else found any other shortening of certain names, male or female? And what have you done in that case?
Best Answer
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You should only index names as they are written. The field help always tells us the same on names: Type the given names as they were written. Do not correct misspellings or expand abbreviations.
There are many abbreviations used in old records, i.e. Alexr (Alexander), Benj (Benjamin), Chas (Charles), Danl (Daniel), Jno (John), Jon (Jonathan), Jas (James), Thos (Thomas), Margt (Margaret), Xopher (christopher) and even Xpr for Christopher, to name a very few. X stands for Christ like in Xmas.
The search engines are good enough to find the abbreviations.
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