Jan et al, Whenever you see your ancestor's signed name and an X beside or above the signature. It does not mean that your ancestor was necessarily illiterate or didn't know how to write. The Scots and the Scots - Irish men often signed legal documents and drew a St. Andrews Cross, X, and then kissed it. This was done to show that their word was their bond. Yours Aye, David D. Boyd from GA.

That's an interesting bit of info. I don't know whether there was a name at Andrew Boyd's voting signature or whether it was just an X. I'll have to check it out. Actually I don't care whether he could write. He was smart and hard working and generous (he gave land to several different denominations for churches, but maybe he was just hedging his bets. Anna Grace Boyd Foster On Jul 7, 2005, at 3:20 PM, David Boyd wrote: > Jan et al, > Whenever you see your ancestor's signed name and an X beside or above > the signature. It does not mean that your ancestor was necessarily > illiterate or didn't know how to write. The Scots and the Scots - > Irish men often signed legal documents and drew a St. Andrews Cross, > X, and then kissed it. > This was done to show that their word was their bond. > > Yours Aye, > David D. Boyd > from GA. > > > ==== CLANBOYD Mailing List ==== > RING OF BOYDS http://k.webring.com/wrman?ring=clanboydwebring&addsite > > http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=boyd- > trees >