Can anyone help me decipher this signature?

[LaBelleSauvage123]

I’m doing some family tree research and can’t find this person - it’s definitely a male. What do you think?

Has known her

I started to wonder if it could be Thomas or Homer?
It seems the squiggle at the end of the first name is referred to as 'Superscript' and the many wiggles in the second name are called 'minums'.
It's got in my head now. A very pleasant diversion.

Try this of list of first name abbreviations and this chart for letters that could be mixed up.

www.genealogyintime.com/dictionaries/list-of-first-name-abbreviations.html

Maybe it's not a k but a J? Then the surname starts with a tylt...? I spose you've already looked at the rest of the letter to see how they write the other letters of the alphabet?

Hans Kylhuut or Kylhuutz.

Is there a dedicated website for say finnish/Swedish surnames? Some start with k?

I think I’ve tried almost every variation of a Ky.... name on ancestry and there’s nothing that looks likely.

Words - Jack is Ada’s son, as is Arthur also mentioned, and she had a daughter Maisie. (Her third son James died of TB at 12 - I have some heart breaking letters written from him to Ada while he was at the sanatorium). So I’ve always assumed that the letter writer was a relative of Maisie’s - maybe a cousin? Or maybe she was married for a short time - my grandad (Jack) wasn’t close to her and never saw her, although they lived quite close to each other.

You could look up a possible marriage just using her name.

If this mystery man wasn’t English, but American, then that might be why you are getting nowhere on Ancestry, unless you have the super duper package that includes the US ( I don’t , or I would search it for you) .

Hamish?

Just been looking at some old postcards from around the same year.

I think you can safely ignore the "sutterlin" sidetrack as this is normal, British English handwriting for the period. I think that sidetrack got started with the thought it might be "Hans".

About Ancestry - it's data isn't very complete, it's riddled with errors, and it's a very poor way of researching family trees. It can give a start, but everything needs to be confirmed against the genuine sources.

On a separate track, have you identified Jack's regiment?

Does it make sense to you that that Arthur is a "sensitive boy" but living within the Army routine at home?

The Maisie referred to appears to be in Egypt too. Does this make sense?

Whoever the letter writer is, he sounds like a close family friend. There's a lot of familiarity "our Jack", he has independent correspondence with at least three members of the family (Ada, Jack and Maisie - although he's possibly talking to Maisie face-to-face rather than corresponding).

Could the surname be Kythreotis? That appears to be a Cypriot surname and Alexandria isn't too far from Cyprus? The spelling might vary, especially as the Greek alphabet is also used in Cyprus and might not always be transcribed the same way.

If so, maybe he was educated in the UK or had a British mother?

And then this would be Maisie

SirVix - have searched for a marriage of Maisie Coulson and there are no records, even with variations of the name. I do have the premium ancestry subscription, so that I can try to trace my errant gt grandfather.

Doginatent - Jack was in the Argyle and Southern Highlanders. Arthur - not sure about the ‘sensitive’ bit but know he was in the Army ( he was a Chelsea Pensioner as an elderly man). He never married and lived with my grandfather (Jack) and his wife throughout my childhood.

Ooh Oatgroat that’s worth a look. Ada had w sister Mary who was born in 1877.

The only issue is the implication in the letter that the writer is young - whereas this Maisie would have been 47 in 1924. Unless the writer is a nephew?

Yes, I agree about the age, given the beard comment. Plus, he implies strongly that he's not their uncle.

I would explore it from the angle of Mary, Margaret or Maisie (and maybe Maude) Kythreatis in Australia and the US but I don't have worldwide ancestry (as I don't need it.) I did notice the name Goddard keeps coming up in Australian searches but can't check that out.

I think that that first name is Hamish, abbreviated down to Ham, and I wonder if the latter part of the surname is ....church but that makes a Ky start for the name unlikely. First surname letter an R maybe?

I think the surname could be Kythreatis. I can find two records, including the one linked to by Oatgroat- one of an arrival at New York from Alexandria in 1927 - birth date is given as about 1869 Taunton, which is where my great great aunt Mary Coulson was born, but birth listed as ‘abt 1877’.

The other is of a Maisie H Kythreatis, born about 1877, arrived London 1923 from Brisbane via Port Said. My ancestor had the middle initial A which could easily be miswritten H. They could of course be the same person with inaccurate birth dates.

However I can’t find any males with the surname Kythreatis who seem linked. I got briefly excited by a ‘Homer’ ( the signature could be Homer at a squint) but he’s too young - unless he’s Maisie’s nephew? All Mary’s siblings married, so I need to look again at their children.

Unless Gt gt aunt Maisie had a Greek toy boy of course!

It really doesn’t look like Kythreatis to me, in the rest of the text his small e and a are very distinct and easy to read.
Agree about the Ham, abbreviated from Hamish though.

He also very carefully dots all his i s, there is no sign of this in the signature.

I spend quite a bit of time deciphering historic manuscripts and my money is on Hans Kythwitz.

Ohhh yes Kythwitz sound promising!

It's nice when I can put my extremely niche skills to good use

It does. When you look at the “that” further up the letter there is the same long bar across both t