help decifering surname

[Carrie Meerten]

Can anyone please help me with the surname of the link below.

http://people.smartchat.net.au/~meer...20Required.htm

[Rod Neep]

Harriet Parsons

formerly Bessant

[Carrie Meerten]

Thanks for that. I am not sure how you can see a double 's' there, but I will go with that. I think you have had a lot more practise at reading these than me. I would have thought the 3rd letter was an f or something like that.

[Peter Goodey]

It would have been useful to have mentioned the date and the locality. Bessant is a fairly regional name - associated particularly with Hampshire, IoW. Dorset, Somerset and thereabouts. Does that sound likely or are you going to say it was somewhere the other end of the country?

[Carrie Meerten]

mother name on birth certificate for 1862 in sub dist of Witchampton in reg dist of Wimborne in the counties of Herts & Hants (that is what the cert says).

[Geoffers]

I would have thought the 3rd letter was an f or something like that.

Until you get used to the form of script, it is an easy mistake to make. It is quite usual in the 18th and 19th century to find a double s writen in this way.

Geoffers

[Patrisia]

.....and if you want to follow up on Harriett nee Bessant get in touch with Brenda Davis who runs the BESSANT/BESZANT/BESANT etc One Name Study.
I will send her email address directly to you as an anti-spam measure.

[Chris in 1066Land]

meerten

For my money it is "Harriet Parsons formerly Bessant"

In olden documents etc, the double 's' is always written as 'fs'

[Rod Neep]

Thanks for that. I am not sure how you can see a double 's' there, but I will go with that. I think you have had a lot more practise at reading these than me. I would have thought the 3rd letter was an f or something like that.

Carrie.... it was quite normal to write a double s like that.... here's an example with proof.

1. The actual marriage record of Elizabeth RUSS in a marriage register written by the Curate. Clearly "Russ"


And then later, when the register was full, an index was written (in the same register book) by someone else, and this time using the "fs" format for RUSS



You just get used to seeing it, and once you know what it is, you will never be confused again.

Regards
Rod

[Rod Neep]

And the similar thing in printed form.

It was usual to use the "f" looking character for a single S, except for the end of a word, where it was printed as an "s". (in handwriting a single s was always written as an s - only a double s was written as "fs").

Note: "ufefulnefs" (usefulness), "beft" (best) "Compilations" (normal s on the end)



There is actually a difference between the "f" looking S and a real "F"
If we enlarge that section, we can see that a real "f" has a full cross bar, whereas a "s" (f) has only a left hand part of the middle bar:



Regards
Rod