On Wednesday, December 24, 2014 12:01:43 PM UTC+1, brightside S9 wrote: > On Wed, 24 Dec 2014 09:52:13 +0000, John P Gibson > <[email protected]> wrote: > > >On 20/12/2014 11:39, brightside S9 wrote: > > > ><snip> > > > >> I now have the marriage cert from GRO. I can understand the > >> mistranscription into GRO index. The handwriting is awful. > >> > >> The mariage took place on July 9th 1866. John's father's name is > >> William Lenton. > >> > >> I can scan the cert if anyone wants / needs to try to deciper the > >> rest. > >> > > > >Ooh, yes please! That would be very nice. > > > >I really must try to remember to fire up my newsreader, such as it is, > >more frequently. > > > This link should (I hope it works) bring up the scan. I'll leave it > available for a few days. It would be nice if someone can decpher the > church at which the marriage was solemnised, and the grooms age. > > https://www.dropbox.com/s/mmad1tdybeb0a8f/johnlenton_estherlance.jpg?dl=0 > > -- > brightside S9 I don't see why Richard van Schaik says such a definite 28 as 20 seems just as likely/unlikely to me, particularly as over 21 was often written as "of age". As for the parish, looking through the list of parishes on Genuki for Hampshire I think Portsea is the most likely, specially if one compares it with the word Southsea below. Genuki gives a list of churches in the parish and the church of the Ascension in Stubbington Ave is the only one which could possibly fit the hand writing. There is an article giving the history of Portsea which I haven't read but may help here http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol3/pp192-202#h3-0007 regards melanie chesnel

melanie chesnel wrote: > > I don't see why Richard van Schaik says such a definite 28 as 20 seems just as likely/unlikely to me, particularly as over 21 was often written as "of age". > As for the parish, looking through the list of parishes on Genuki for Hampshire I think Portsea is the most likely, specially if one compares it with the word Southsea below. Genuki gives a list of churches in the parish and the church of the Ascension in Stubbington Ave is the only one which could possibly fit the hand writing. > There is an article giving the history of Portsea which I haven't read but may help here http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol3/pp192-202#h3-0007 > regards melanie chesnel > His age in the 1871 census was given as 34, so 28 sounds about right. -- Anne Chambers South Australia anne dot chambers at bigpond dot com

On 24/12/14 20:18, melanie chesnel wrote: > I don't see why Richard van Schaik says such a definite 28 as 20 > seems just as likely/unlikely to me, particularly as over 21 was > often written as "of age". I can't speak for the specific reasons why Richard van Schaik says it's far more likely to be a 28 than 20, but he's right. An '8' was often written much more like a lower-case Greek delta, and in this case the lower loop, while very small, is very clearly formed. The upper loop is perhaps atypically large, but not so much as to cast doubt on the identity of the digit. It would take a lot to convince me that it were anything but an '8'. And whilst you're right that people over 21 were often just given as "of age", considerably more often their ages were given. Richard

On Fri, 26 Dec 2014 13:50:43 +0000, Richard Smith <[email protected]> wrote: >On 24/12/14 20:18, melanie chesnel wrote: > >> I don't see why Richard van Schaik says such a definite 28 as 20 >> seems just as likely/unlikely to me, particularly as over 21 was >> often written as "of age". > >I can't speak for the specific reasons why Richard van Schaik says it's >far more likely to be a 28 than 20, but he's right. An '8' was often >written much more like a lower-case Greek delta, and in this case the >lower loop, while very small, is very clearly formed. The upper loop is >perhaps atypically large, but not so much as to cast doubt on the >identity of the digit. It would take a lot to convince me that it were >anything but an '8'. And whilst you're right that people over 21 were >often just given as "of age", considerably more often their ages were given. I can vouch for the above. A few years ago I was facing the same problem in 17th and early 18th century wills and other documents. This group had a look at my exemplars and drove away my problems, for which I was and am very thankful. -- Don [email protected]