Pages

▼

July 30, 2011

Genealogy Challenge - Care to Have a Guess?

Oliver Price Jones?
Opinions and guesses wanted. Yes I do want my readers to have a look at this name and give their best guess as to what it is.

The name is "OLIVER PRICE xxxxx". What is the last name?

At first I thought the upper case letter was a "T" but it doesn't match how the writer formed other "T" as in "Thomas"

T seems to be just a straight hard horizontal bar on top of a vertical stick. No little "thingey" sticking out the left side as in this letter

Upper Case "T"
Here's another example of upper case T.  It is nothing like the first letter of Oliver Price's surname.







Upper case letter "F" in Farrier and Foster
Then I thought perhaps it is "F"? But look at the word "Farrier" and "Foster-father" F isn't formed the same way as the start of this surname. F has a distinct horizontal line/bar through the middle and a curving top that looks almost like a Y.

The first letter in the surname above does not have that "Y" top.


My final thought is "J". Perhaps the surname is JONES or JANES?

I am unable to find this individual as the time of this document is 1940. The place is England - Streatham in Wandsworth to be exact. But I've no way of knowing where Oliver lives.  I suspect Oliver was born before 1885 but have no way of knowing that for sure either. I also have a hunch that PRICE might be PREECE but again - no proof, nothing but a hunch....

All ideas/suggestions/opinions welcome! And if you find Oliver Price unknown in any record I'd be forever grateful. 




at

14 comments:

  1. Kristin12:44 PM

    Does look like "Jones". The middle name looks like Price to me and the first name looks like Oliver, not Olive. Good luck with your search.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tony Hall12:46 PM

    I have to agree with JONES for the surname. Assuming this is a marriage certificate, one trick you can try is to contact the relevant local Registrar (even if you obtained the certificate from the GRO), say that you already have a certificate, but you'd like confirmation of the groom's father's surname. The local Registrars get to know the handwriting in their Registers, and they've helped me this way in the past, even with just a phone call.
    BTW, how about "Farmer" rather than "Farrier"? - compare with the m in Thomas, and the n's are written similarly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Olive Tree Genealogy1:06 PM

    Kristin - yes it is Oliver, the "Olive" on the image caption was just a typo :-)

    The middle name is written as Price - I didn't explain very well but what I meant was that I believe it might be a mistake for the name Preece

    ReplyDelete
  4. Olive Tree Genealogy1:07 PM

    Tony, thank you! I didn't realize one could ask for help from the local registrar. Next question I have is how do I find that person? Yes it is a GRO cert but I'm assuming you don't mean I can contact GRO.

    Good catch on "farmer" vs "Farrier"!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Becky Higgins1:37 PM

    Just thought I'd chime in with a vote for Jones as well.
    It's times like this I appreciate the invention of the typewriter/computer:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tony Hall1:41 PM

    Wandsworth Registration District shows that the local Register Office is now either Wandsworth or Lambeth, with links to a table that gives their phone number and email address. Make sure you give full details of the date and place of marriage (e.g. which church), as each place means a separate register that they'll have to heave off the shelf. The splitting of Streatham in 1901 is a complication, but they'll tell you if you first pick the wrong office. I do hope they're helpful and not too busy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bubba1:53 PM

    I would say Jones.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Donovan Derr1:57 PM

    It resembles the way my grandmother used to write and I would guess it says "Faues".

    ReplyDelete
  9. Randy Seaver2:15 PM

    I think that it is "Fones" not "Jones."

    Fones was a common name in colonial rhode Island, as I recall.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Olive Tree Genealogy2:35 PM

    I thought FONES at one point too. But the top of the
    First letter in the surname is so different for the F in Foster and Farmer. Boy this is tough!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Frances Elizabeth Schwab3:02 PM

    I think it's Jones--I've seen the J in my name printed that way many times. And if you look at how the writer forms an 'm', you can see the similarity to the 'n'.

    Jill

    ReplyDelete
  12. Melody4:26 PM

    My vote is also for Jones. If you look at Farmer and Foster, the writer carried the line to the next letter. He/she doesn't do that in the name that is questioned. The line goes the other way and doesn't connect the word.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sandy B6:48 PM

    Looking at other names written there, their lower case a's and o's look so much alike it does provide a problem. My first thought with the first letter was F. Surely not a T for reason already stated. The n (if it's Jones or Fones) looks acceptable, it looks enough like the m in the Thomas below.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Jim's Girl11:09 AM

    I'd say Jones, maybe Janes. And "farmer." I'm also grateful for the typewriter, except when someone else is typing up handwriting like this without the benefit of the entire genealogical community weighing in!

    ReplyDelete