Confused by death notation

[lilbees]

I recently located the birth record for Sabino Gentile born 1874. I new about the marriages but the confusion comes with the death date. He would have been 120 yrs old if he died in 1995. If it is 1895 that is not possible either. His last child was born 1925.

His grandfather also carried the name Sabino Gentile. When I search through the Torre Annuziata records I cannot locate the death record. I also searched in the Castellammare di Stabia records but again, no luck.

Maybe I am reading the dates wrong. Can someone take a look?

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/7154/sab ... th1874.jpg

Thanks,
lilbees

[pink67]

Hi Lilbees,

I read that he died on 20 february 1951...

Laura

[lilbees]

Some of the writing really gets to me. Would not have guessed on that date. Will see if I can find that record.

Thanks again Laura.

lilbees

[lilbees]

Not too swift this morning. Of course, there are no records available for 1951. But, can you restate his birthdate. I have 12 Oct 1874?

lilbees

[johnnyonthespot]

Some of the writing really gets to me.

It's true; the handwritten digit "1" for example often looks very much like an inverted "v" and can be mistaken for a carat or other symbol or even a slip of the pen. Combine with some of the strange (to Americans, anyway) abbreviation habits, and things can get really confusing.

For example, here it is not uncommon to drop the century part of a year such that 1951 becomes 51 or 2011 becomes 11, however I doubt it would ever occur to an American-English writer to drop only the millenium and write "951" for 1951 as seems to be the case in your document. Since we would never write it that way, it doesn't jump out at us even when staring us in the face.

I am also fond of 7bre, 8bre, 9bre, and 10bre (or xbre) as arrbeviations for September, Occtober, November, and December.

[Tessa78]

Not too swift this morning. Of course, there are no records available for 1951. But, can you restate his birthdate. I have 12 Oct 1874?

lilbees

That is the correct date of birth

T.

[lilbees]

Thanks again Laura. Carmine, dropping the numbers get me always. Don't seem to mind the "9bre" attachment though.

lilbees