help reading word
Can anyone make out what the red circled word is after the highlighted name?
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I found another document 2 years later referring to the same case. In that one it's a bit clearer and the software has it as "umpire". That's still strange to me in a court context but it's probably not genealogically significant.
Answers
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@CMichael7
Your image is not displaying so we cannot assist. It's generally preferable to provide the URL rather than a snip. In that way we can compare letters between words and even on adjacent pages.2 -
The site software broke the link when I edited the message. Since I had it solved, I didn't try to re-link the image. It's terrible handwriting for a professional court clerk. I'm surprised the site's transcription software could get as many of the words correct or nearly so as it does. If only court clerks had written in non-cursive letters. I've never understood the perceived value of writing that other people can't read.
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@CMichael7 people using cursive was standard practice for centuries in official and unofficial contexts. We were expected to use it when I was at school in the 60s/70s, and my children learned it in the 90s. My parents always used cursive. I'd honestly say it was essential for family historians to be able to read it.
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When writing with quill and ink, they had to minimize splotches by keeping the quill and paper in contact.
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@JuanZuluaga3 thanks for that insight!
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I can read it, when it's legible. I had a 5th great grandmother that wrote beautifully. I've transcribed documents from the 1600s. But the problem with cursive is one man's writing is not the same as another's. There is some that is fairly easy to read. And there were clerks that couldn't write their own name legibly. They could have at least printed the names in the censuses (printing as in old terminology for non-cursive). The problem is the writer not the reader.
I was in school back then too. And it's not reality to think that everyone writes as well as those letter examples they had posted above the chalkboards. The old cursive is also worse than what they taught us because the old style had too many flourishes. It was a good thing when typewriters came along.
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So I had to learn handwriting all of that time in school… because the bird quills couldn't keep the ink from dripping too much back in the old days?
Excuse me while I go outside and yell at some birds about this. 😉
VERY interesting bit of history there!
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Occupation, 1850, SC, male
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Quoting myself:
It's generally preferable to provide the URL rather than a snip. In that way we can compare letters between words and even on adjacent pages.
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I know, but … !!!
The most logical thing I could think of is Shoe Maker but that first word doesn't match that well.
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I think it is likely Shoe Maker, when we compare the S in Shoe to the S in Spartanburg at the top of the page, and to the abbreviation for South Carolina at the top of the Place of Birth column. Also compare the M to the several given names beginning with M. The adjacent family head of household is a tailor: possibly two shops/craftsmen providing for the community.
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