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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: Isabel H on Friday 25 April 25 13:29 BST (UK)

Title: Cause of child's death, please?
Post by: Isabel H on Friday 25 April 25 13:29 BST (UK)
1861 Canada West census
Cause of death of Mary Lindsay, dau. of John & Catherine, who died aged 4 mths. Is it mis-spelt Inflamation?
Title: Re: Cause of child's death, please?
Post by: Gadget on Friday 25 April 25 14:18 BST (UK)
I think it's a spelling mistake - it looks like Imflamation  and should be Inflammation!
Title: Re: Cause of child's death, please?
Post by: Viktoria on Friday 25 April 25 15:55 BST (UK)
It looks a bit like Infalmation ,but so faint and blurred not easy to say and most probably meaning  Inflammation as Gadget says .
Viktoria.
Title: Re: Cause of child's death, please?
Post by: janan on Friday 25 April 25 16:50 BST (UK)
Actually looks like Iinfalmtion to me, but I would agree it is likely to be inflammation.
Title: Re: Cause of child's death, please?
Post by: Isabel H on Friday 25 April 25 19:56 BST (UK)
Thanks Gadget, Viktoria and janan.  As I thought, just a spelling mistake.
Title: Re: Cause of child's death, please?
Post by: Zaphod99 on Friday 25 April 25 20:07 BST (UK)
A doctor making a spelling mistake like that, a very common word, seems a little bit unlikely and I'd have thought a part of the body would be mentioned as well if it was inflammation.

Also, I think there is a letter before the in.....  I don't think that character is connected to the number four. A larger image might help.

My next guess was infantilism, q.v., but again it doesn't quite look right.

(Infantilism, also known as infantile speech, a speech disorder in which early speech stages persist beyond the age they are normally expected to fade.)

But I've never heard of anybody dying of it.

Zaph
Title: Re: Cause of child's death, please?
Post by: Gadget on Friday 25 April 25 20:40 BST (UK)

Quote
(Infantilism, also known as infantile speech, a speech disorder in which early speech stages persist beyond the age they are normally expected to fade.)

But I've never heard of anybody dying of it.

The child was 4 months old!

PS - the letter is a capt I

Title: Re: Cause of child's death, please?
Post by: Isabel H on Friday 25 April 25 22:01 BST (UK)
A doctor making a spelling mistake like that, a very common word, seems a little bit unlikely

Thank you for taking time to look at this.
I agree, but this was in a census column for anyone who had died in the previous year, so it was probably the child's father, or the census enumerator, who spelt it like that.  I'm happy to accept it is inflammation and not some rare disease.
Title: Re: Cause of child's death, please?
Post by: Zaphod99 on Friday 25 April 25 22:28 BST (UK)
I'm accepting the capital 'I' but then there is another letter before what might be 'n'.

Zaph
Title: Re: Cause of child's death, please?
Post by: Gadget on Friday 25 April 25 23:00 BST (UK)
It's a loose m  - first stroke is detached.