James Rodger - Who Was Present At His Death ?

[darylrodger]

Hi,

I was hoping someone could decipher a death cert I have for James Rodger. I can't read what relationship the informant was to James, only that their name was
Mary Rodger. I know he had a daughter named Mary, but I'm not sure if it's her that signed the cert.

I have uploaded the cert into the gallery.



Any ideas ?

Daryl

[nelmit]

Hi Daryl,

Too late at night and my old eyes are tired.

I know it looks nothing like 'daughter' but I think it might have been.

Here is the lady in question in 1871 -

50 Charlotte Street

Mary Rodger 37 Head, Fishmonger born Glasgow
Jane Farquhar 34 Cousin, Shopkeeper, born Tain

I see James did have a daughter Mary born around 1834.

Hopefully somebody with better eyesight will come along soon.

Regards,
Annette

[WilmaM]

That is a difficult one.

I can't turn it into Daughter - capital D's are different through out the rest of the page, and there is no downstroke for a g.
I thought it may be Sister - but the S in September and surgeon aren't the same, and there is too many letters.

I can't figure out another letter that that first one could be,
the ending looks like 'thes' but what relationship that could fit escapes me.

I wonder if whoever it is was still living at that address in the 1871 census?

[trish1]

I'm thinking the description here is written by the informant & not by the registrar - which is why it is different to the rest of the writing on the page
The spelling of daughter looks to be d..g..ther or d..ut..ther - which might be how the informant thought it was spelt.

Trish

[speleobat2]

I was thinking Daughter misspelled as Dauther.

Carol

[Russell]

I agree with you on that Carol. Dauther could be a likely pronounciation of daughter back then. The initial letter looks more like a poorly formed 'D'. In other parts of the country it would sound more like dochter but Glasgow had a strong Irish influence and even now some consonants are not pronounced in broad glaswegian.

Russell

[speleobat2]

Yes, and our speech here in the US has become so bland because of schooling and television that I sometimes forget that people did pronounce words differently back then. Spelling daughter as dauther probably made sense to Mary because that's how she pronounced the word.

Carol

[darylrodger]

Hi,

Thanks everyone, yes I'm tending to think it's James's daughter Mary who signed the cert. Even with experience of calligraphy, I just couldn't work out if the primary
capital letter was a 'D' or 'S' even tracing it didn't make it easier. If it was his daughter, she couldn't spell

Thanks again,

Daryl

[Russell]

Hi Daryl
Back then spelling was not considered an essential part of communication. Spelling had only begun to be formalised after the 1855 introduction of Statutory Registration so many folk, including the Registrars, continued to use the spellings they were accustomed to. I have one marriage certificate where the Registrar has written the same surname three different ways It would take a couple of generations before more formal spellings were adopted. Mc and Mac were used interchangeably. It makes our searches more entertaining

Russell