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  • How to find Irish handwriting samples circa 1920-1950 to match a cold c

    From Nick Pelling@21:1/5 to All on Thu Mar 11 09:43:37 2021
    Hi everyone,

    I'm trying to match the writing on the back of a white/cream tie found in a suitcase associated with a famous Australian cold case from 1948 (the Somerton Man). Here's a link to an image:
    https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/anemptyglass/images/c/c3/224827_10151881313790026_305627244_n.jpg

    My suspicion is that there may be something about the way the K (in KEANE) is formed that might help localise the writing to a particular part of Ireland. I don't mind the hard work of looking through thousands of images, but so far I haven't found any
    archive source for Irish handwriting samples circa 1920-1950 to match against.

    I've had no luck in the (otherwise generally excellent) online Ireland BDM archives, and the only places I've found signatures online are American draft cards and American naturalisation forms (which are somewhat roundabout sources to be looking for
    Irish handwriting).

    Any suggestions? All ideas, tips & hints gratefully received!

    Thanks, Nick

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  • From RoddyMcCorley@21:1/5 to Nick Pelling on Thu Mar 11 15:52:21 2021
    On 3/11/2021 12:43 PM, Nick Pelling wrote:
    Hi everyone,

    I'm trying to match the writing on the back of a white/cream tie found in a suitcase associated with a famous Australian cold case from 1948 (the Somerton Man). Here's a link to an image:
    https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/anemptyglass/images/c/c3/224827_10151881313790026_305627244_n.jpg

    My suspicion is that there may be something about the way the K (in KEANE) is formed that might help localise the writing to a particular part of Ireland. I don't mind the hard work of looking through thousands of images, but so far I haven't found any
    archive source for Irish handwriting samples circa 1920-1950 to match against.

    I've had no luck in the (otherwise generally excellent) online Ireland BDM archives, and the only places I've found signatures online are American draft cards and American naturalisation forms (which are somewhat roundabout sources to be looking for
    Irish handwriting).

    Any suggestions? All ideas, tips & hints gratefully received!

    Thanks, Nick

    You might try the Petty Sessions Court Registers. Not sure that there is
    a free site for them I access them through Ancestry.com.

    --
    "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In
    practice, there is." Ruben Goldberg

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  • From Nick Pelling@21:1/5 to RoddyMcCorley on Fri Mar 12 14:35:24 2021
    On Thursday, 11 March 2021 at 20:52:21 UTC, RoddyMcCorley wrote:
    You might try the Petty Sessions Court Registers. Not sure that there is
    a free site for them I access them through Ancestry.com.
    --
    "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In
    practice, there is." Ruben Goldberg

    Hi Roddy,

    Thanks for the tip! I just had a look at the Petty Sessions Court Registers on ancestry.com, and unfortunately it suffers from the same problem - entries are only made by hands officially sanctioned by the court. As an aside, Ancestry also had the dog
    licence registration register, which had the same issue.

    However, Ancestry also unexpectedly pointed me to a database of Irish soldiers' wills (mainly from WWI), which looks as though it might give me the collection of signatures I was hoping for:
    http://soldierswills.nationalarchives.ie/search/sw/home.jsp

    Best regards, Nick

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  • From RoddyMcCorley@21:1/5 to Nick Pelling on Fri Mar 12 18:46:21 2021
    On 3/12/2021 5:35 PM, Nick Pelling wrote:
    On Thursday, 11 March 2021 at 20:52:21 UTC, RoddyMcCorley wrote:
    You might try the Petty Sessions Court Registers. Not sure that there is
    a free site for them I access them through Ancestry.com.
    --
    "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In
    practice, there is." Ruben Goldberg

    Hi Roddy,

    Thanks for the tip! I just had a look at the Petty Sessions Court Registers on ancestry.com, and unfortunately it suffers from the same problem - entries are only made by hands officially sanctioned by the court. As an aside, Ancestry also had the dog
    licence registration register, which had the same issue.

    However, Ancestry also unexpectedly pointed me to a database of Irish soldiers' wills (mainly from WWI), which looks as though it might give me the collection of signatures I was hoping for:
    http://soldierswills.nationalarchives.ie/search/sw/home.jsp

    Best regards, Nick

    Thanks, Nick.

    I found the petty sessions court registers and the dog licenses
    interesting and informative. One of my grandfathers was in the R.I.C. so
    he shows up a lot. Also didn't know that he and his wife had a number of
    dogs.

    I not know the existence of the soldiers' wills. Makes for really sad
    reading.

    --
    "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In
    practice, there is." Ruben Goldberg

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