The "et" -> "&" lineage is even more visible in certain fonts like this: https:/...

amyjess · on June 25, 2017

The bottom row of this has some more examples: http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/... (found via Google Image Search for italic ampersand).

The one in the second column from the left (again, bottom row) is how I write my ampersands by hand.

Chaebixi · on June 26, 2017

> The "et" -> "&" lineage is even more visible in certain fonts

Also in some of the handwritten forms like this one:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ampersand-handwritin...

It's basically a 't' with the cross-bar curled over to form something like an 'e'.

I don't have any citations, but I'm pretty sure most of this evolution pre-dated the concept of "fonts," when all documents were handwritten manuscripts.