Terrible Handwriting!

[JAP]

Hi MarinaB,

Like you, I see it clearly as 'Laussed' - though I've never heard of the name either.

It is fortunate that the enumerator missed out Mary Ann so had to score through Laussed and Thomas, then start on the next line with Mary Ann followed by Laussed and Thomas.  So we get two versions of Laussed.

The first version has the double 'ss' written clearly as an 's' followed by another 's'; the second version has the old-fashioned double 'ss' with the first 's' being a long 's' (often confused with an 'f' if one is not familiar with the old double 'ss') and the second 's' being a standard 's'.  As mirl (Colin) said, the double 'ss' in the second version is exactly the same as the double 'ss' in the mother Ann's birthplace of Essex (not showing in the extract posted on this thread) which also has the long 's'.

A comparison of the enumerator's writing elsewhere on the page shows that the first letter is 'L'.

The third letter is 'u' (not 'n') as can be seen in the extract on this thread if one compares 'n' as written in 'Ann' and 'Mary Ann' with 'u' as written in 'Daur'.

So, whatever the name was meant to be, I believe that what appears on the image is 'Laussed'.

I have wondered whether it might have been a misrepresentation of a name which was meant to end in 'ette' - but that hasn't helped either ...

Like Colin I have searched hard for the family in the intervening years but no luck ...  It's maddening.

JAP

 

[MarinaB]

Thank you all for trying to solve my problem. I've come up with all sorts of permutations but as this family seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth for 30 years it doesn't look like we're ever going to find out this poor girl's name.

I'm wondering if the 'ed' on the end of her name might be 'ert' making her name Laussert!! Never heard of that either.......oh well, back to the drawing board.

Marina

[JAP]

Hi again Marina,

Well, what it says and what it is meant to be are two different things - but I definitely couldn't make it end in 'ert' 

It's not just that I can't see an 'r' but look at the enumerator's 't' at the end of a word in (on the same page) 'Saint', 'Street', 'Margaret', 'St', 'Somerset', 'Dorset', 'Bridport'...

I guess it's lucky that the transcriber managed to make the surname into THORPE!

JAP

[MarinaB]

Hi Jap

I just found this in 1881, transcribed as Louisa Thorpe b.1848 Clerkenwell. Do you think this could be her? Dates and place fit and the name looks like LOUSSA or LAUSSA.
Getting desperate now aren't I?
 

[JAP]

Hi Marina,

Excellent find!

You certainly have to be very suspicious.

Interesting that the Boarder (assuming he is in Felix's household) is of an age with Laussa but was born in New York.  Perhaps the THORPE family disappeared off to the US??  With Thomas jnr and 'Laussa', at least, returning later (that's, of course, pure speculation).

She's still with Felix and family in 1891 aged 44 but unfortunately she is clearly recorded as Louisa ...

Do you have Thomas jnr's marriage cert?  I was wondering whether the witnesses might be of any interest.

JAP