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Anybody want to help me decipher this 1880s hand writing?

38 replies

BlossomIsSoPretty · 07/05/2025 12:17

Taken from burial records.
The picture with the two words, is the same word in different writing. It's the location of where somebody died. Others on the burial record are workhouse, new street etc so a building or a road name.
Then we have a surname. Can't make head not tale of it
Lastly i know for a fact the name is Lempfried and is the surname of the person who signed the other two names (bottom one of the double picture, the top one doesn't have a signature with it).

Any ideas?? (Pictures will attach when approved)

Anybody want to help me decipher this 1880s hand writing?
Anybody want to help me decipher this 1880s hand writing?
Anybody want to help me decipher this 1880s hand writing?
OP posts:
PrettyPuss · 07/05/2025 12:20

Joseph Mesenger?

Just studying the other 2!

Icouldntclimbthelamppost · 07/05/2025 12:20

Joseph Mepenger/Mepenyer?
Depot?

jollygreenpea · 07/05/2025 12:21

Could you take some pictures further out so we can see more, perhaps read them better in context?

WomenInSTEM · 07/05/2025 12:22

Depot?

PrettyPuss · 07/05/2025 12:22

Sorry, I have just read your OP properly and realise now that 2 photos are the same name but written by a different hand.

ShaftesburyParker · 07/05/2025 12:23

Is it French? The circumflex accent on Depot seems very clear.

ShaftesburyParker · 07/05/2025 12:24

Joseph Merenyer
Depot
Lempfried

ApoodlecalledPenny · 07/05/2025 12:25

Looks like Depot or Depôt to me.

I don't know it as a surname though it is a word meaning deposit.

Iloveanicegarden · 07/05/2025 12:25

Context would be helpful. I have researched DH family tree and records are not always clear or correct. Context helps enormously.

NoBinturongsHereMate · 07/05/2025 12:26

Depot/Depôt.

The long one of the name needs a pic from further out - the 'next' arrows are over part of the words.

Icouldntclimbthelamppost · 07/05/2025 12:26

As pp suggested is the f in an s in Mesenger? Using the f had largely died out by the 1880's though

Fraaances · 07/05/2025 12:27

Lempfriar? Lempfrew? Mifenjer?

zobeit · 07/05/2025 12:27

Depot with a circumflex implying it’s French.
Depot without the circumflex.
Joseph McPerry - the surname lacking the capitals I have added.

Octavia64 · 07/05/2025 12:27

Looks like depot to me, one French spelling with the circumflex and one without.

BlossomIsSoPretty · 07/05/2025 12:30

ShaftesburyParker · 07/05/2025 12:23

Is it French? The circumflex accent on Depot seems very clear.

See its the circumflex that is confusing me. They are English as English can be!

OP posts:
OccasionalHope · 07/05/2025 12:30

Definitely Joseph Messenger and Depot.

CharlotteFlax · 07/05/2025 12:31

Can you post a photo of more text in a block, please? I can usually work these things out if I’ve got other words that I can work out.

Horticula · 07/05/2025 12:32

Depot
Joseph Messenger

frozendaisy · 07/05/2025 12:33

Mcfenger? Mcpenger?

MoistVonL · 07/05/2025 12:35

Depot was sometimes spelled with a circumflex in the past. I have come across it before (in English)

BlossomIsSoPretty · 07/05/2025 12:35

Adding two new photos. First is Mr Lemfrieds writing again, and say Wilfrid Joseph Oakley and Elisabeth Brookes (I check against freebmd website). Second another pic of Joseph's name

Anybody want to help me decipher this 1880s hand writing?
Anybody want to help me decipher this 1880s hand writing?
OP posts:
Horticula · 07/05/2025 12:36

Re the circumflex on depot, it certainly used to be used over the o in 'hotel' in English so at that time it wouldn't be surprising to see it on words like depot.

OccasionalHope · 07/05/2025 12:37

Still very clearly Messenger,

BlossomIsSoPretty · 07/05/2025 12:42

I've checked on free bmd. Joseph was sadly only 3 years old. (I didnt want to say that at first as very sad, although very common at that time) i put in his year of death, first name and aged 3 at death for the area and there are no hits.
For the county we have the surnames Chance, Jones, Peake and Prestidge.

Ahhh! I've just found a 3 year old in the correct location for the correct year, with surname Messenger with the first name WILLIAM! So Joseph was an error! Thank you thank you thank you. This has been driving me mad for days!

OP posts:
candycane222 · 07/05/2025 12:45

I'm going with Mcpenger (the p in his own name kind of tracks). Never heard it before but Google tells me it is an actual name.

Your friend does not seem to have been a very confident writer - or perhaps had a tremor? Does his writing get worse as the years go by?