Dictionaries are useful today, but they mislead people about language - its organic character. For a few years I did genealogy in the parish registers of London - 1538 to 1660. Names were spelled the way they sounded to the writer. I concentrated on the name Dickinson for various reasons. I was told that I had found over 100 spellings of the name over that period, plus some other incidental occurrences.
There was hardly ever any doubt to the intended name. Just as an example, in the earliest mentions of the name, a common spelling was Dicconson. Language is always evolving - but dictionaries are changing that somewhat. 🖨️
>>I did genealogy in the parish registers of London - 1538 to 1660
Awestruck at your incredible opportunity. I love meandering through records and churchyards. Here in MA, the records are kept in the town clerk’s office and were collected into Town Books which were put into almost every town library. But when you really want to be certain, you can go to see the original books with the handwritten wills. Skin chilling thrilling.
Don’t seem to find any Dickinsons in my direct tree. Just an aunt who married into the line in the 1640s in Hatfield MA.
I have multiple newspaper archive subscriptions, so will do occasional searches for people in corners of time.