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Question: Jno in census reports!?
typo for Jon or an abbreviation for something else!? I thought it was a typo but I'm seeing a lot of it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
It's not necessarily Jonathan!. My husbands great grandfather was named John and the abbreviation Jno is associated with him several times!. With that said:

It is a formerly used abbreviation for the Latin “Joannes” was “Jno!.,” one letter shorter than the English version “John!.”

Wikipedia says :

Another noteworthy addition would be about the abbreviation "Jno!." earlier just "Jno", really a corruption of "Jn!." with the period drawn circularly to look like a small "o"!. Amateur genealogists very frequently mistake this for an abbreviation of "Jonathan", but it is really short for "John", a difference that can be quite significant, since it was very common in the 1800s and earlier (characterized by what we'd today consider substandard recordkeeping) to have sons/brothers named both John and Jonathan, often several generations of these pairs in a row!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It's not a typo!. That was actually the abbreviation for Jonathan in the 18th and 19th centuries!. If you go into a census index and type that in, you'll get many thousand results!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It can be short for "Jonathan"!.
"Jas" is sometimes short for "James"!.
Wm, of course, is William!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

dear
jon abbreviation of jonath!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I would say it should have been an abbreviation for the name "John" !.Www@QuestionHome@Com