Help reading family Bilbe

[jeffrey.bean]

I have a family Bible that was lent to me. It belonged to my GGGrandmother, who was born in Yorkshire. It states:
St. Thomas Sunday School
1st (looks like) clap
1st (looks lik) division
1st (looks like)pray
awarded to Isabella Wild
A.W. Wilson vicar

Sutton 5th Jan 1878
I'm tring to figure out what the 1st's are, they dont sound right to me.

I'll try an post a picture.
Looks like I cant post the picture.
Thanks,
Jeff
USA

[Peter Goodey]

Jeff


Put it on a website. Then you can (a) use "insert image" in a forum message here and/or (b) just tell us the URL.

It seems the most reliable way to do it.

[jeffrey.bean]

Thanks Peter, lets see if this works, http://photobucket.com/albums/a88/swbean/?action=view&current=bible.jpg

[neddy]

1st class--1st division--1st prize

[busyglen]

Jeff, to me it looks like:

1st Clap, 1st Division, 1st Prize.

I did wonder if the first one was Class, but looking at the P in Prize, it is almost identical.

Will be interested to see what others think.

Glenys

[Wirral]

I agree with Neddy. The letters "fs" were commonly used for "ss" at that time.

[Geoffers]

1st Clap, 1st Division, 1st Prize.
I did wonder if the first one was Class, but looking at the P in Prize, it is almost identical.
It's a matter of getting used to this form of italic handwriting. You will frequently find that during the 19th century a double-s is written using a first letter with long descender and ascender (looks like a modern 'f') followed by what is a more familiar lower case 's' to modern eyes.

But note how the descender of the first 's' joins the second letter - two distinct lines - as opposed to the lower case p which has a single line for the descender.

I keep a note book with examples of handwriting that I find. Down the side of each page I write the modern letters and then in columns write the alphabet as found in original documents. At the head of each column is a note of the source and decade. The book is kept in strict chronological order and for earlier alphabets I include the small squiggles and storkes that were abbreviations. That way I have a record of local handwriting for the area in which I am interested. This booklet (which cost pennies) is invaluable to me in recording changing styles in handwriting.

Geoffers

[Peter Goodey]

"1st class--1st division--1st prize"
Agreed. No doubt about it.

[jeffrey.bean]

Ok, now that we figured out the words, any idea how they would pertain to Sunday school. I'm assuming the Bible was the prize, what about 1st class and 1st division?

Since we had so much fun with letters, lets try some numbers http://photobucket.com/albums/a88/swbean/?action=view&current=bibledate.jpg. My guess is 1878, whats yours.

I hope I havent been a bother with all the questions I have posted. About a month ago I traced my rellies back to England and I'm just full of question.

Thanks again,
Jeff
USA

[Peter Goodey]

1878 (not a guess, that's what it is)

Divisions and classes were just sub-groupings of the Sunday School, I guess. Divisions might have been based on age range and class on perhaps level of attainment or whatever. Sunday Schools were more popular and more widespread in Victorian times than they are today.

[Clive Blackaby]

You might find this site usefulhttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/default.htm

Regards
Clive

[jeffrey.bean]

Clive, thanks for posting that link, that has been a very helpful site, and has gone to my favorites list.

Cheers,
Jeff