Thread for antique letter decipherers! Pics included

[OldTrot]

Thought I'd set up a thread for those of us interested in historical letters/ postcards/ photos

Here's my current one... and what I have so far!

? June 14th 1843

Send my father tomorrow
Mr W ??? Hungerford (don't think it's this)

1/2 ? ?
1/2 ? ?

The sooner leader is up here packing, the better, he had better bring up some empty ? there are so many ? bottles (?) to move

I believe she was 73 when she died in 1917. One of her daughters either visited Lincoln or lived there in 1915, to send the card

Would love to know more about Mrs Bedingfield. How on earth did you find that? So - we think she was a midwife potentially?

See pics - this is her and her daughters

Yes yes . Think the other daughter is Annie Louisa

Don't think any of them had children though - I was sort of hoping there might be family that might like the postcard I have!

Ah yes, Midwifes' Roll for 1915 has:

[name] Bedingfeld, Elinor Agnes
[address] Challow, Wantage, Berks
[date of enrolment] 1903, Dec. 17
[qualification] L.O.S., Jan. 21, 1880

This is all still from Ancestry. There's a frightening amount on there these days...

Just realised I didn't use ancestry for this - only renewed my subscription last week. I used find my past and that was limited info

Are you an historian btw? You are an excellent sleuth regardless

And I now know she was a midwife. I've emailed the local museum asking where 2 north view cottage was but they are not sure. East Challow is small - it's gotta be somewhere!

Sorry, cross-posted.

Ancestry has loads about her. She pops up hither and yon in censuses because she's living in different households as a nurse, mostly in Kent, Surrey, Sussex.

Her daughter Maria Longueville Beddingfield[sic] was born in Devon.

According to the 1871 census, Elinor was born in 1844 in Bury St Edmunds. Her husband is a railway clerk born in Ditchingham Norfolk. Railway staff are often much more mobile than other working or lower-middle class folk, as they can relocate easily to jobs around the rail network.

Yeah, take a peep at Ancestry.

Drinking from the fire hose comes to mind...

Hah, I'm a wannabe historian. Too much info, not enough writing up...

You can often get an idea of where houses were located from the census returns - as East Challow is a fairly small village have a look on the 1891 / 1901 / 1911 census forms for the village and see which properties were listed before and after North View Cottage.

I think Mrs Bedingfeld is probably going to be very interesting indeed, and may have illustrious family.

Her father (according to an Ancestry tree which I haven't checked but which looks v plausible) was Dr William Harcourt Ranking (or Rankine).

He was also at Cambridge which means one can find him here:
venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/Documents/acad/2018/search-2018.html
Ranking, William Harcourt.
Adm. pens. at ST CATHARINE'S, Oct. 28, 1831.
S. of –, Esq., of Hastings.
Matric. Michs. 1833; M.B. 1837; Med.
Lic. 1838; M.D. 1843.
Of Norwich.
Physician to the Suffolk general Hospital; Senior Physician, Norwich Hospital and infirmary for the blind.
Editor, The Half-Yearly Abstract of the Medical Sciences and The Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal.
(Medical Directories.)

Ah yes, here we go:

MARRIAGES.
BEDINGFELD—RANKING—On the 12th Instant, at St. Peter's Port, Guernsey, George Longuevllle Bedingfeld, Esq., youngest son of John L. Bedingfeld, Esq., of Ditchingham-hall, in this county, to Elinor Agnes, eldest daughter of William Ranking, Esq., M.D.
Norfolk News, Saturday 29 October 1864, p5

She's a cracker, especially with that bit of Zeppelin history, and needs writing up and publishing!

I know right? I'm sure it says zep and from looking, the zeppelin was over Lincoln then

Just trying to locate her cottage now on the maps -

She does sound rather illustrious doesn't she? Well to do. Seems the family died out with her daughters though

Yes, I'm clearly very far off with my original thought that husband George was lower middle class. Perhaps he was "Railway Clerk" in a head office sort of way.

They really don't sound like the booking-office clerks and railway carriage cleaners of my family, who married up and down the lines and used their employer to get transferred the length of the country.

Come to think of it, some Railway Co Employment records were also on Ancestry a while back. You may well be able to find him.

Hello, OP. I was on the postcard thread. I thought I recognised the postcard image and then saw you had quoted my words from when I deciphered it - glad they were useful. It's great to think you are looking into it some more. I hoped you would. Best of luck.

Got him. He was at London Bridge in the Treasurers Dept in 1871.

First names mangled, so search in "All UK, Railway Employment Records, 1833-1956" for "Bedingfield". I think both results are George.

According to that tree on Ancestry, dau Amy Catherine Longueville Bedingfeld married a Wheatland and emigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where they had at least one son who died in 1990.

So maybe her line hasn't died out...

Apologies @ItsRainingCatsAndDogsAgain I absolutely should have referenced you! I'd written it down in my book and was referring to that when I shared it again here. No excuse I know!

@TressiliansStone ooh that is interesting then. There's a possibility the line is still going then. I saw that both daughters were described as having died as 'spinsters' and assumed no children were had by either of them

Anyone fancy a stab at this? It's written by 'Edward' and is relatively easy to read bar the odd word

I'm not sure if it's a known poem or made up

They tell me that love is a folly
they tell me that hope is in vain
That life is all melancholy
?? I feel complain

I ? with the spring when the ?
I laugh at the ?? day
And when the ???
I look for the ? gay(?)

Edward

Its from 1836

Yet cousin I ??eer complain
and
I love with the Spring when she calleth
I laugh at the bright June day
And when the wild Autumn falleth
I look for the Christmas gay

Could you give a close-up of the text with the squiggle over it?

I'm not convinced it's "cousin".

Could the squiggled-on word be "ever"?

Yes, it is cousin.

Here you here, @BatFaceOwl

They tell me that love is a folly
They tell me that hope is vain
They tell me that life is all melancholy
Yet cousin I ne'er complain

I dance with the Spring when she calleth
I laugh at the bright June day
And when the wild Autumn falleth
I look for the Christmas day

Edward