I was going through baptismo records of year 1667 of pueblo Santa Catharina which is recorded in Mezquitic Catholic Church records and noticed the signatures of "Fray Marcos De Niza:
It looks odd at first but if you look carefully, it is an abbreviated/stylized way of signing, the letter that looks like an A is actually a Q, with the @ in top that would (in this specific case) means UI but understood as UIA, completing the MIZQUIA name. Plus the century off, but is interesting how a misread can lead to a different but actual real name, been there myself many times.
Fray Marcos De Niza en
Here is a copy of the title page:
http://oi57.tinypic.com/27yzocg.jpg
There it says "Fray Marcos De Mixquia"
And he signs his name as "Fray Marcos De Niza"
odd????
Mizquia
It looks odd at first but if you look carefully, it is an abbreviated/stylized way of signing, the letter that looks like an A is actually a Q, with the @ in top that would (in this specific case) means UI but understood as UIA, completing the MIZQUIA name. Plus the century off, but is interesting how a misread can lead to a different but actual real name, been there myself many times.
RJ Quiralta