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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: GAJM on Saturday 29 August 09 16:00 BST (UK)

Title: Need help on wife's first name please ***Completed***
Post by: GAJM on Saturday 29 August 09 16:00 BST (UK)
Hi i have a census extract as attached but i cant make out the wife's first name i think it looks like Hert? Anyone any other ideas any help appreciated
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: jacques on Saturday 29 August 09 16:11 BST (UK)
Could it be Hester??

Pam
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: danuslave on Saturday 29 August 09 16:50 BST (UK)
Can you give us the census reference, or a bit more to compare it with?

The letter at the start of the name doesn't look like the H in Head of house.  Could it be a K?

Linda
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: Raphael on Saturday 29 August 09 17:07 BST (UK)
Hi i have a census extract as attached but i cant make out the wife's first name i think it looks like Hert? Anyone any other ideas any help appreciated
Hi! Gerard, This is rather difficult whilst the extract has been written by two different people.  The H in the Hd head of family, has a completely different H to the one we suspect is Hert. (The R's also seem different too)
Maybe the person transcribing  that which looks like Hert could have misheard and wrote it phonetically or in some colloquial expression,and it was overlooked by the other person filling in the rest of the document.
(Is this a certificate or a transcript from a church register???) as Certs have more details. Hester (normally spelled Ester) could sound like that (soundex) if in a local dialect would not be correctly written.
Just a thought

Kind Regards
Raphael UK & Düsseldorf  D
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: Spryte on Saturday 29 August 09 17:39 BST (UK)
I agree that the first letter does not look quite like the "H" in "Head" and the third letter does not look quite like the "r" in other words.  My money would be on "Kent", which is not necessarily the same as the English county between London and Calais.  I came across it once a long time ago (with an ancient form of - possibly - Celtic capital "K") in a book of locomotive names.  I believe it was in the Isle of Man and could be a Manx or Gaelic name - Manx and Gaelic (both Scots and Irish) are very closely related to each other.
Sheldon
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: Emjaybee on Saturday 29 August 09 19:27 BST (UK)
http://www.hethert.org/TheNameofHet-Hert.html

Check this link - Hert as a name
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: Dinkydidy on Sunday 30 August 09 08:49 BST (UK)
There is a definite "kink" in the right-hand stroke of the capital which makes it likely to be a K. And the next two letters are similar to the e and a in the surname. Could the name simply be Keat - either as a variation of the similar surname, or even of Kate, and pronounced like it, as well?

Didy
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: Lyn S on Sunday 30 August 09 11:57 BST (UK)
Just a thought - were the members of the RAHER family born in the UK?

I suppose it's possible that the Wife had a name that was unusual/difficult for the Enumerator to understand/record -  maybe one the Enumerator hadn't heard of before! - and he wrote down an approximation/abbreviation of it.

Lyn S
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: Rena on Sunday 30 August 09 13:00 BST (UK)
I'm flummoxed by the given name too and looked on a couple of "old Irish given name" websites to see if I could spot anything - unfortunately not.
 That exact surname spelling is found in Ireland, Germany and a few in France according to www.familysearch.org  which might mean that an old family name from any of those countries could have been passed down.

Good luck.
Rena

Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: MonicaL on Sunday 30 August 09 13:18 BST (UK)
Hi Gerard

Have you tried searching for a marriage (in Ireland I am assuming)? http://pilot.familysearch.org

Is this Michael's birth entry:

MICHAEL RAHER  Birth: 12 APR 1864 Tramore, Waterford, Ireland
Parents: MICHAEL RAHER and CATHERINE DUNPHY

Monica  :)

Added: Can't be his entry can it  :P I see Michael is aged 78 in 1911. Wife is indexed as Hert, aged 64 - all the family showing as born in Co. Waterford.

You could always apply for a birth cert for one of the children, not sure how direct this line is to you.

Also, maybe the outside chance, as Didy suggested earlier that it could be Keat, for Kate, looking at the possible birth entry above for a Catherine Dunphy.
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: Spryte on Sunday 30 August 09 16:53 BST (UK)
Surely the "Het-Hert" suggestion is a red herring (or should that be a wild goose?).  Irish-Egyptians are a bit thin on the ground.
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: noseyoap on Tuesday 01 September 09 00:12 BST (UK)
Looks like it starts with Il... to me
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: dobfarm on Tuesday 01 September 09 09:26 BST (UK)
Hi
Could it be FL or SL instead of H
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please
Post by: GAJM on Tuesday 01 September 09 11:40 BST (UK)
Hi thanks for all the suggestions.

I have now obtained the birth cert of one of the children and appears the parents are Michael Raher and Kate (Catherine) Hally.

Really appreciate all the replies.

I have found the index for the marriage of the above couple so will order that now.


Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please ***Completed***
Post by: MonicaL on Tuesday 01 September 09 17:17 BST (UK)
That's great Gerard, glad you got there  :) Didy was right with Kate!

At least three children show to Michael and Kate on IGI, you may have these already:

1. Margaret Raher Birth: 14 APR 1872 , Waterford
2. Bridget Raher Birth: 15 SEP 1873 , Waterford
3. Thomas Raher Birth: 23 APR 1875 , Waterford

Monica
Title: Re: Need help on wife's first name please ***Completed***
Post by: GAJM on Tuesday 01 September 09 17:22 BST (UK)
Thanks yes looks like their must have being two Michaels as the Michael in Census is only 25 in 1911. So possible the first Michael died young or the census is wrong.

This is my son's maternal line and total new area of research for me which is good as was sick of banging my head against a brick wall on my own line.

Ger