Margaret or Mary A

[WelchRegLost]

I am missing both Margaret and Mary Ann Evans so this census entry could be one of them.

The first name of the single mother of 3 sons is what I would like help with as I want to see one rather than the other and fear that is clouding my judgement.

 

[Daft Bat]

It reads as Mary A Evans to me.

 

[MollyMay]

First glance Margaret, but on closer inspection I am sure that it reads
Mary A.
So Mary Ann from me too.

 

[Daft Bat]

First glance Margaret, but on closer inspection I am sure that it reads
Mary A.
So Mary Ann from me too.

Yes, the first glance does make you think that it's Margaret!

 

[WelchRegLost]

Thank you both, my wanting it to be Margaret was clouding my judgement and only wanting to accept the first glance.

 

[Archie's Mum]

Mary A. I did struggle though.

 

[Half Hour]

I think it is Margaret. I enlarged it to read and I believe the t has an open bottom making it look like an A. There are too many letters to be Mary A !

 

[arthurk]

I thought there weren't enough letters for Margaret.

A couple of things which I think would help with this, on the same page or others in the same handwriting, are:
- more examples of 'y' and 'g': the y/g here looks different from the other g's in the extract, but I can't see any other y's.
- other examples of upper case 'A'

These seemed to me to be the key letters to look for.

 

[Half Hour]

See the " t " in "domestic". It is the same style..open bottom.

 

[arthurk]

I've just had a look at the full page, and the ones immediately before and after. If anyone else wants to, it's at RG12/4591 fo116 p3 (Wales) - image quality varies from site to site, and the one at The Genealogist is very good.

I asked earlier about 'g' and 'y': every 'g' that I saw had a totally closed upper part, unlike the one here.

Uppercase 'A' - admittedly the majority are written like a large lowercase one, but the page before has a similar 'A' in Annie. Having said that, the entry we're looking at has a different inconsistency - the 'M' in Mother is different from the others.

Anyway, having seen the clearer entry I have no doubt at all that it's Mary A. It's also more evident there that the enumerator has a habit of putting a full stop or comma after names and initials, and on a blurry copy that can lead to confusion.

Mary's age is also a lot clearer - 34.

 

[MollyMay]

Looking on the following page is a Margaret A

the 'A' being pretty similar to the one in question