Good With Handwriting?

[Robb]

I need some help/suggestions with some names I found in an old Census. I am not having much luck tracing the names as I read them...........so maybe I am reading them incorrectly. Maybe someone here can see them differently than I do.

-Bailey Eland
-Bailey (Baily) Rebeca
-Bailey (Bailey) Jane
-Bailey Mary
-Bailey (Baily) John
-Bailey (Baily) Allen
-Bailey Alice

Things I have noticed:
1) I believe the same person wrote all the names. The "B" looks pretty consistant, and all these people are in the same family. 2)If that is a "c" in Rebeca, it is nothing like the "c" in Alice. 3)The "d" in Eland could be almost anything, and Eland, as a first name, is rare.

Thanks for any help!!

[Chew_12]

Im curious whats this for? Im no expert but all of those look to be by the same person.

[dman726749]

alice could be aliee

never seen it spelled like that before, but ya never know

[EMG7895]

The Jane could be Jami, because the n looks more like a m and there is a dot for what could be an i

[Robb]

Originally Posted by Chew_12

Im curious whats this for? Im no expert but all of those look to be by the same person.

Yea, I definately believe the same person wrote all the names. They were all members of a "household" in 1880. Eland (?) was the "head of household," Rebeca (?) was the wife, and the others were children (ages 13-23). I would guess that either the father or mother wrote for everyone.

I am looking into this list for genealogical info. John Bailey would be the one I am most interested in. I know that my great great grandad was named John Bailey and was born in 1861 and lived in Va (Orange, Culpeper, Staunton). This John Bailey was 19 at the time of this census, and lived in Va. Two problems though: technically, my John's birthday wasn't until after this form was filled out, so he would have only been 18 at the time...............and this township in Va is a bit more west than where my John spent most of his life (actually so far west, the town is now in West Virginia ). But, investigating this John is still worth my time just in case.

dman, you are correct. I meant to add that to my "things I have noticed" list. I agree, it does look like a double e.

EMG, thanks! As soon as I looked again after I read your post, it hit me that that does look more like an m than a n. I will look into Jame, and Jami.

[Bashman]

Until you mentioned the head of the household, I was going to say Eland looks like Elane, and Rebeca looks like Baily (no "e").

[hit_that]

just a quick note, I think the 'c' in rebeca is actually a 'k', making it rebeka.

[Redrig]

Originally Posted by Bashman

Until you mentioned the head of the household, I was going to say Eland looks like Elane, and Rebeca looks like Baily (no "e").

I was going to say that Eland looked like Elane also, if that helps.

[AlaskanJack]

Originally Posted by EMG7895

The Jane could be Jami, because the n looks more like a m and there is a dot for what could be an i

Well if you look at the notes on the side all the women have a 71 in the second column and the men appear to have a "M" in that column. So I doubt that it's jane since there is a db in the second column. I would look to a more common males name. I was thinking it was James and the "S" was left off or just Jame. I was looking to see if it was Zane but it's clearly a "J"

[Nate1]

I'm with Kurt. It says Jame, based on the other letters, the m and e match up.

[glfredrick]

Just a hint, be careful attributing "modern" spellings of names like "jami" to these older names - they didn't think that way back then, and typically went for the "correct" spelling of things.

I too have done some family research and that is something that I discovered.

[Robb]

Originally Posted by AlaskanJack

Well if you look at the notes on the side all the women have a 71 in the second column and the men appear to have a "M" in that column. So I doubt that it's jane since there is a db in the second column.

Old English. The first column after the names are all "W" for "White." The second column is "M" for males, and "F" for females. Yep, that there is a funky F.

[Robb]

Originally Posted by glfredrick

Just a hint, be careful attributing "modern" spellings of names like "jami" to these older names - they didn't think that way back then, and typically went for the "correct" spelling of things.

Definately. Bailey is commonly spelled Bailey, Bayley, Bayly, etc. The name Eland is somewhat common as a English surname, but not used often as a first name. Eland is sometimes interchangable with Elan, and in modern times, has often been adapted to Alen or Allen.

[Robb]

Originally Posted by Robb

Old English. The first column after the names are all "W" for "White." The second column is "M" for males, and "F" for females. Yep, that there is a funky F.

Of course, as I type that I noticed that Jane, Jame, Jami is a male.

Maybe his name is Lame!

[woodychitwn]

Here's my opinion...

Bailey Eland W M 55
Bailey Rebeca W F 50
Bailey Jame W M 23 (Definitely m, compare with the n in John or Allen)
Bailey Mary W F 21
Bailey John W M 19
Bailey Allen W M 16
Bailey Aliee W F 13 (Definitely both e's at the end, compare with the c in Rebeca.)

However, are you sure the fourth column is age? The average lifespan in 1900 was 47. And it seems odd that these people wouldn't start having children until they were 32 and 27. Unless I'm wrong, which I may be, I believe that was pretty unheard of back then.

[woodychitwn]

Originally Posted by Robb

Maybe his name is Lame!

Cute, but the then his little brother would be Lohn, the first letters match perfectly. :p

[campo2]

I look at cencus' all the time. that handwritting is actually very good....
anyway. This is what i come up with.

Bailey Eland w (white) m(male) age 55
" Rebeca w f(female) 50
" James w m 23
" Mary w f 21
" John w m 19
" Allen w m 16
" Alice w f 13

I would have to see more of the cencus to be sure on some of the spellings of names. also they usually shortened common names.
Only the cencus taker wrote in the book. The family would tell him the information so there are times when there are misspellings of first and last names. as for the birthdate always give at least 2years either way on cencus' because of the rules changed from time to time and each taker had his own method of doing it. plus back then they were alway sure when they were born. if you need anymore help just let me know.

by the way this is campo's wife. yes i finally registered.....
Also the f written in it is the proper way back.

[Robb]

Hello Campo's wife! (wish I could type a proper name, but you didn't give one )

Once again, the obvious hit me tonight when I took another look at that list....................the whole thing was written by the same person, just as you called "campo's wife." There are other Baileys on the list, and their name is in the exact same writing.

But, I have to disagree with you on one point. I downloaded a 1920 and 1930 census with my great grandad's "household"............and the writers of those had MUCH better handwriting!

This pic gets a little blurry because of the size. Hope you can worth with this a little.................

[campo2]

Robb
The little bit of digging i did, i found them back to 1860. In 1860 mercer co was part of Virginia. so i would think this mercer county must be right on the border, because it doesnt look like they moved at all. 1870 its Beaver pond township mercer co WVA and 1860 its my division township, mercer co. VA
I do believe that Eland is suppose to be Leland. Like i said before sometimes they changed their names ages birthplaces etc. it all depended on who the cencus takers talked to.
As for the handwritting. As you start digging around in cencus' you will understand what i mean when i said very nice handwritting. some of them had horrible writting. it is hard to decipher the old hand writting right off the bat but with time and patience you can do it.
Who did John Bailey marry and approx. what year? I can look in the 1900-1930 for him if you want.
hope this helps
tracy

[Robb]

Thanks Tracy!!!!

Yes, I saw that the modern town of Mercer is way out in WV, but the town of Beaver Pond was just west of the NorthWest border of Va, just a couple hours west of DC. Just from a quick look, it appeared that the county of Mercer was HUGE, and covered a great amount of modern northern WV.

This is what I know of John Bailey:
John Samuel Bailey
b. 10/7/1861, Culpeper, Va (location not ceritfied)
d. 12/6/1912, Staunton, Va (buried in Rapidan, Va) (location of death not certified)

m. Mary Belle Battaile (daughter of J. Robert Battaile & Isabel Newman), 7/8/1888, Orange Va

children: Norman Calvin (my great granddad), Nora Belle, Norris Samuel, Nathaniel John, Newman Marshall, Nelson Robert

yea................they liked the Ns

I had the oppurtunity to visit his grave, and was hoping that those around him would shed some light on his history, but he was buried in a small, family cemetary belonging to his wife's family.

I have found Norman Calvin (1st) and his family in the 1920 and 1930 Fed Census'..................but I can trace the entire family from him through living relatives, who happen to be a great bunch of ladies who will talk about their families and old times all day long if you give them the oppurtunity.

Thanks for the Leland=Eland connection. That is a much more common first name, and one that may lead to some info.