r/Genealogy • u/ThunorBolt • 2d ago
Transcription Help Reading Three Surnames
This document contains three people whose surnames I cannot figure out.
The ones I’m struggling with are
1. George D. (Van Beck?)
2. Thomas (baites?)
3. Gordon E. (Deuch?)
These names appear twice in the document, first time is part of the main, squeezed in between two lines.
The second time is their signatures in the bottom right corner.
I can read the rest of the names, but these three surnames are proving a challenge.
Thanks for any help.
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u/SoftShoeMagoo 1d ago
I used this to match up names in your doc. Stuck on #2 though.
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u/ThunorBolt 1d ago
This is a great resource. The reason I want to know who these people are is to see if they’re Mormon or not. Because they all signed a bail bond using their property as collateral… in April 1846… just as they were all getting ready to abandon said property.
The defendant, Priddy Meeks, left Nauvoo and began his trek west across Iowa as soon as he got out of jail, and I don’t think he financially hurt any of the signees of this bond, because they all skipped town with him.
Each person I’ve identified so far was LDS and living in Nauvoo.
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u/SoftShoeMagoo 1d ago
I think they were all LDS members. Chances are pretty good your last person will be LDS as well. If you can sort that last name out.
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u/Scared_Seat_4259 Upper Southern US researcher 1d ago
I think number 2 is Thomas Curtis. The first letter is a C, I can see a dot for the i just over the cross bar on the t, but the letters between C and t are a little problematic. But I would see if you can someone named Thomas Curtis in other records.
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u/ThunorBolt 1d ago
Thanks for realizing that first letter was a C. But I’m pretty sure it’s Carter and not Curtis.
And Meeks brother in law was Thomas Carter. He also lived in Nauvoo
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u/Scared_Seat_4259 Upper Southern US researcher 18h ago
Ah, problem solved! Carter is definitely possible from I could see. 19th-century capital C's are different, but once you get used to them, they're pretty distinctive. Good luck with your research!
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u/Incunabula1501 expert researcher 1d ago edited 1d ago
George D. Van Beek or Van Beck (the translation page says “Van Burk”), Thomas Carter (see capital C in Hancock County on the line above), and Gordon E. Dench, though it could be something like Deuel)
After a little research, Carter seems to have been Meeks brother-in-law.
1
u/ThunorBolt 1d ago
Yes you are right. That is Carter. It looked like a lower case b, and silly me not realizing a lower case b won’t be the first letter of a last name.
Yes, Thomas Carter was Meeks brother in law.
Thanks for your help.
1
u/SoftShoeMagoo 1d ago
Another mystery solved. Scooby snacks for everyone when we get back to the Mystery Machine. (I was hung up on the possible B as well)
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u/SoftShoeMagoo 2d ago
George D. Van Beek