Why does the double ss in names sometimes appear as sh or hs, as in Janssen, Janshen, Janhsen or Buss, Bu, Bush, Buhs?
Those that spell their name with the hs or sh, think that is correct and say that is the way it has been spelled for generations. That can be true and so they continue to use the spelling. In very early hand writing the scripted h and s appear to be similar. The general population was not literate in those times. As the shape of the letters changed to what we now accept as German script, the similarities of h and s faded and a different form of the letters evolved. When the older records were read, the h in the ss combination was read as hs or sh according to what was then known to be the shape of the letters.
