If you have Hispanic or Southwestern U.S. ancestry, you probably will be interested in an article by Nicolás Cabrera that has been published in the Denver Public Library’s web site. Cabrera writes:
“Many documents researchers encounter in Hispanic and southwest genealogy research are handwritten in Spanish with archaic terms, abbreviations, and old spelling rules, especially during the colonial and territorial periods. When consulting extractions, indexes, and modern records, this may not be a problem. Older, original records may be harder to understand. A familiarity with paleography, the study of old writing forms, is beneficial. For example, it is good to know that some priests and clerks abbreviated 9embre for the month of November, Jsph means José, and that Guadalupe is a male and female name.”
There is a lot more information in the article at: https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/tips-10.