Genealogy Chat

I just received a copy of my ancestor's will (thanks to a kind GC member!) and it mentions "...parish of Shipley in the family? of (Sufase?) Yeoman...' I know what yeoman means (just looked it up), but does anyone have any idea what "Sufase" could be? (May not have it spelled correctly!!) By the way, the will is dated 1796. Thanks very much for any ideas. Off to work now, will check when I return.

Hi Lisa, Guess who? At a guess I would say it says SUSSEX YEOMAN. Hope it helps Regards Vera

Hi Lisa, I agree with Vera, it probably says "in the COUNTY of SUSSEX, Yeoman. Once you've read a few old hands you'll get used to seeing letters and words totally differently to how we'd expect them to be, and it gets easier to decipher them when you learn the most commonly used phrases. Roots web have pages on old english writing at rootsweb(.)com/~usgenweb/special/oldenglish/oldenglish.htm homepages(.)rootsweb(.)com/~oel/handwriting.html Best wishes, Carole

Hi Vera: Thanks again for the will!!! (I'll send you another email; won't take as long, this time!) Hi Carol: Thanks for your input and websites. I'll be sure look at them tonight (just got home) and mark them as favourites! Vera and Carol: You're correct. What I thought was an "f" is actually a "C" with a line though it, which makes it fairly easy to read as County. The person who wrote the will did that to corn and cattle, too. I think I remember hearing that if there were two s's together, that they made the first letter "f"? Aha, I just looked at some photocopied pages from the Sussex baptism pages and it is written "Sufsex". Thanks for your help -- I never would have read it as Sussex! I have two other wills: one is fairly difficult to read; the other took my mum's cousin DAYS to figure out!!! This will is so easy to read, compared to the other two! Thank you both for your help -- probably wouldn't have figured it out on my own. PS: Curiosity got the better of me - had to look at the sites before supper -- they're great -- thanks.