Family Historian User Group

Can any one id the word highlighted in blue please.

Could it be Propor - short for Proportionate?

The first letter looks more like capital P than anything else.
In many similar style online handwriting examples the top loop of the P is often quite small, as it is here.
Are there any examples of P in the same hand anywhere else in the document?

Thanks for the suggestions.

Unfortunately the rest of the document is in different hands, so no help there.

Are the columns (L) & (R) of the sample you give us even in the same hand? We can try and do some comparisons, because they are in the same style, but have to be wary if they are in different hands.

I started to try and do a comparison of the Upper case letters:

• The B of "Bro" (L) look similar to the Bs of "Back" and "Bust" (R)
• but the R of "Round" (L) is distinctly different to the R of "Right" (R)
• The distinctively different Initial letter of our mystery string does not appear to be repeated which rules out D, B, F, H, F, & R (by comparison to the L column) and possibly R, S, T, A, L, M, F, E, V, B & W by comparison to the R column. This would leave the (subjectively) improbable options of C, I, K, N, O, Q, U, X, Y, & Z and the possible options of G, J, & P

Looking at Lower case letter groups (taking our mystery string to be an Uppercase and three lower case character groups: 2 letters, 1 letter, 2 letters):

• The ro of "Bro" (L) and the second character group of the mystery string (L) are similar - but no comparator in the R column; the ro of "groin" is not directly comparable as there are different lead in and following characters - but we may be reasonably certain from just a left column comparison that the second character group of our mystery string is "ro"
• The or of "anchor" (R) are similar to the last character group of the mystery string (L)
• The ark of "Dark" (L) are superficially the same as the ark in "Marks" (R), but the pressures behind the writing appear different - particularly the "a"
• The final letter d in both columns, "Round" and "hand" both come off an "n" and are in the same style but are they in the same hand - the proportions are different?
• The middle letter group of the mystery string, which we might "want to be" a "p" unfortunately does not match. The recovery from the descender is unlooped - unlike the "z" of "Hazel" (L). On the right the "g" of groin is looped, unlike the "g" of "thigh" which does not recover into the "h". On the right the "f"s of "of thumb", "of Woman", "of hand" are unlooped (whilst the "f" in "Leftside" is. (Lower case "e"s also vary in the R column)

Do we have other descriptions of "Build" elsewhere in the document, not so much for letter by letter comparison, but to spark off thoughts about words that might be used to describe this individual? From the Distinguishing Marks I would be thinking of Powerful (Po'ful) or Heavy - but they can not be made to fit. What options were the clerks using?

I think Jane has it right, i.e. “Propor”. The shape of the P matches the shape of the top half of the R.

davidf wrote: ↑

13 May 2020 14:51

• The middle letter group of the mystery string, which we might "want to be" a "p" unfortunately does not match. The recovery from the descender is unlooped - unlike the "z" of "Hazel" (L). On the right the "g" of groin is looped, unlike the "g" of "thigh" which does not recover into the "h". On the right the "f"s of "of thumb", "of Woman", "of hand" are unlooped (whilst the "f" in "Leftside" is. (Lower case "e"s also vary in the R column)

I'm not sure what you mean by "does not match" as there isn't another lower-case 'p' to compare it with. The 'z' doesn't really have any bearing on it - and in any case, as you go on to say, the style is not entirely consistent.

I still think, as I originally suggested, that this is Propor[tionate] - presumably neither particularly fat or thin, and what we might now call average.

I agree that "propor" for proportionate is most likely. I have been researching with the files of Licences for Parole for Female Convicts. Most prisons used a similar form and slight, proportionate or stout were by far the most common build descriptions I have seen.

I agree with Propor(tionate), not for any other reason than that was how I was taught to write at school (Except for the capital P). So the ropor part would be identical to how I would have written it.

Proportionate does make sense especially if sleepingwolf has seen that as a build description on licences of parole.

Thanks everyone for your feedback it's lovely to be able to call on multiple pairs of eyes on things like this.

Now on to this guys father who for a time was a Policeman and was first on the scene of a murder in 1862.