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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: stegy3 on Saturday 18 February 17 06:42 GMT (UK)
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Wondering if anybody would have any ideas about the scars this fellow (a convict from England to Australia in the 1820's) was carrying? I read it as :
Perpendicular scar on tip of
nose Diagonal scar on [?]
Scar left side of upper and lower lips
Woman MW inside lower right arm
Scar ball of left thumb
Presumably he had a woman with initials MW in his life, possibly a sweetheart, and the scars on his face and hands could have come from his work as a carpenter or he might have been a brawler or just involved in an accident. But what puzzles me is the bit I've marked with [?], which is presumably a part of his anatomy. It doesn't look like "back", but I can't think what else it might be.
All suggestions gratefully received.
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I think, "each eyebrow".
Jamjar
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That's plausible.
Thanks, Jamjar.
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I also read it as 'each eyebrow' before I saw Jamjar's reply :)
Heather
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Thanks, Heather. It's beginning to sound like a consensus.
On reflection, the person who was surveying the identifying marks would be recording everything on the face first, before moving onto other parts of the body. So it would make sense to be noting scars on the nose and eyebrows, before arms and hands. It's completely consistent.
I've been looking at this for months and wondering about it, I'm so glad I asked. Thanks for your help!
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Scar left side of upper and lower lips
(Is something cut off on your scan here? )
??..... between MW initials lower right arm.
Sue
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I've been wondering about one of the words:
Instead of Woman MW or between MW - perhaps its Roman MW - indicating the style of letters.
sami
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Hi, Sue. Thanks for your thoughts. I didn't want to post the whole page, because of copyright issues, but I was pretty careful about cropping the few lines describing the scars. There's nothing missing here. Not sure that "between" fits ... ?
Cheers,
Gina.
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Sami, thanks for your suggestion. My understanding is that sometimes when they recorded tattoos they would - rather than describing them - actually draw letters in the style of the tattoo, so I'm guessing this is one of the instances. I'm still inclined to think it was an image of a female who was dear to him at some stage, and that MW were her initials.
Cheers,
Gina.