Doyle baptism 1888 - South Africa

[Kinsy]

Thanks, Girl Guide.
I've searched the baptism records on the Irish Genealogy website, which is very good - but cannot find a Joseph Bernard Doyle born in anything even close to the correct time frame, i.e. mid to late 1850s, according to his marriage & death records.

[Karen McDonald]

Hi,

A bt of a shot in the dark, but what about a badly written Vince? My first idea was actually a badly written Oliver, but the "l" would be completely different to all the other examples.

And Vince starts with a relatively unusual letter, which might explain not being able to find a similar letter on the rest of the page.

Just an idea... 

[Kinsy]

Thanks, Karen - every shot in the dark is appreciated. I'll have a search for a Vince Doyle, and see if anything turns up.

[Sinann]

Another long shot, not for the name of the witness but is there by any chance a relative of the family called John Doyle also a policeman in Transvaal who married in Ireland in 1912, his father was Michael a grocer and farmer but don’t know where the father lived.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1912/09906/5600263.pdf
They had a son Patrick Joseph which has the correct spelling of Transvaal

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1913/01460/1596403.pdf

A newspaper says the child was born at the mother’s parents home.

Also there is a good chance the name Bernard won’t be on the baptism.

[Kinsy]

Hmm, that's interesting, Sinann - thanks.
I don't know whether there was a John in the family, however - apart from my grandfather, that is, although he was actually baptised Johan. But he married in S.Africa, and never went to Ireland.

[shanreagh]

Is it Denis Doyle?

[Kinsy]

Thanks, shanreagh. I also though the first letter might be a D - but, after looking at the writing on a lot of the other pages, I think the last two letters are "er".
Anyway, I'll keep Denis in mind when searching for Doyles in SA.

[Karen McDonald]

It certainly does look like "er" on the end. Too much of a tail to just be an "e".

I can't help but think that he was about to write a "D" (maybe for Doyle) at the beginning and had to correct it. But what could the letter be?

I noticed that lower down there is a Van Staden (at least I think that's what it says) and the "V" is very clear and very simple. Maybe that ruins my "Vince" theory. 

Start writing a "D", realise it's wrong, and change it to... Something that could be a "W"? But Wimer as a first name..?

[Kinsy]

Yes, that is "Van Staden" - and at the bottom of the page (online) the surname "Visagie" is written twice - so the 1st letter can't be a V.
I think the dot above the word is actually the start of the downward stroke of the first letter, and not the dot for an "i" - am going to look at the pages online now to see if I can find a capital letter that starts with a similar downward stroke.