Genealogical Symbol: backward S

[Ruskie]

Was the person who set out the tree an amateur or professional?

The wiring analogy makes some sense in that it's one thing(person) leading onto another. Are there some examples where the symbol is used that there are some gaps between the generations?

[Eleesavet]

Hi all,

Thank you for posting a copy, RedMystic, and thanks to all for your thoughts.

I know the couple had a son Donald.  He was the informant on his father's death.  I will check his birth record on ScotlandsPeople, if there, and get back to you.

I think I agree with Ruskie " ... one thing (person) leading onto another."

Liz

[RedMystic]

I can't answer that one definitively  Ruskie.

I popped into the Clan Donald Centre while in Scotland a few weeks ago. In addition to my own family research, I took along a few queries from other Canadian Chatters. Eleesavet's was one & I was able to turn over quite a few stones, so it was very satisfying.

(Yes, after starting working on family history as a hobby last September, I can say that I am truly addicted.  

I have the name of the fellow who prepared the tree (but no contact info for him), and want to assume that if the Centre accepted it into their records, that it is fairly reliable. The preparer has gone to some effort to indicate what has been deduced vs what has been factually verified.

The symbol is only used the one time. The entries on either end of it are entered as if they have been factually verified.

[Eleesavet]

Mmmm, interesting you would expect it to be used repeatedly if simply leading onto issue.

[Ruskie]

Curiouser and curiouser ... 

[Eleesavet]

... The preparer has gone to some effort to indicate what has been deduced vs what has been factually verified.

The symbol is only used the one time. The entries on either end of it are entered as if they have been factually verified.

I get the feeling the symbol means Donald's birth details weren't satisfactorily confirmed.

I could not find a record of his birth on ScotlandsPeople.  His death certificate gives his father as Donald MacIntosh, Cattle Dealer, and mother as Catherine MacIntosh. His dod 1886; age 67.  Therefore, puts his dob at 1819 and not 1821 as on tree.  Family Search has an extracted entry for christening of a Donald MacIntosh 1819 to a Donald MacIntosh and Catherine MacIntosh in Daviot and Dunlichity, Inverness.

Pity I couldn't contact whoever made the tree.  If only he had included a key to his symbols!

Liz
 

[Redroger]

My understanding of that and other similar terms shown in some family trees is that the descent is somewhat uncertain.

[Ruskie]

Well in that case, I suppose the 's' shape could perhaps be interpreted as looking a bit like a question mark. 

[majm]

Ah HA !

In the real world I have a profession.  I am a Mechanical Engineering Draftsman (yes, politically correct that should read DRAFTER, and I am a female)  That symbol is very familiar to me....  In drawings (plans/maps/sketches etc) it is simply a "shorthand" way of denoting that for the length of that line, it must NOT be scaled off to represent a specific distance or measurement.

It can be drawn in the horizontal or the vertical.  On sketches (ie hand drawn) it is usually considered to be akin to the letter "Z" OR "N" rather than "S" .... 

I will find one of my old drawings this evening (I have been computerised for over 20 years,) and take a scan to show you exactly what I mean. 

But in words the line in the vertical would come from the "top" and meet the first horizontal line of the Z in the centre of that Z line and then continue down from the centre of the "bottom" of the horizontal line of the Z.   

It is basically a way of NOT leaving a great deal of white space and basically allows for keeping the critical details at a legible scale and the "insignificant" information as small as possible .....

So, my thoughts are that it is a "device" used by the person who made the handwritten chart so that OTHER entries on that chart that were from the same generation are all on the same general "horizontal" area of that chart.

Cheers,  JM