Can’t decipher crappy handwriting a new puzzle to solve circa 1899

I’m trying to decipher the cause of death. The transcript says “Killed with the cars” but I don’t think that is right. Can you figure out what she was killed with? Sorry for the crappy picture

It almost looks like the word is newborn.

From a distance it does look like newborn but if you enlarge the image that tall letter is formed the same as other "c"'s in the ledger.

She was 56 at the time, so if she did have a newborn I can easily see that killing her   

Seriously though, that might be a N, or a M, or even tt if that line isn't a stray mark.  Coult it be a th, but the t would have to be lowercase, and in other lines the second word is also capitalized, so it probably isn't a t at all.

And to think, people complain that today's student's don't have enough emphasis on penmenship in school.  I'd say they didn't put enough emphasis on it back then either.

Definitely honeybees.

Looks to me like t is the second letter, not the first. (Contrast with the t at the start of "to" above; also, note where the cross really is.) And I'm wondering if the end is "xers."

Small sample size, but the 1860s seem to have sucked. Fits? ************* sore throat? Plus a 150 year old vampire that drank himself to death?

Anyhow, there's no age for the one you circled. Maybe it does say newborn?

RobB said:

Anyhow, there's no age for the one you circled. Maybe it does say newborn?

If those are ages, that last case of consumption sure took its time.

Do any others on the list begin with "killed with"?

Interesting list. What are the deadly "Tits" or "Fits" below about?  I think is says Killed with her bass.  

just kidding

DaveSchmidt said:

RobB said:

Anyhow, there's no age for the one you circled. Maybe it does say newborn?

If those are ages, that last case of consumption sure took its time.

Whoops. You beat me to that joke.

Here is a second one, looks like a 38 year old male

I'm having trouble posting pictures, stand by

.

Killed on the cars for the second one, killed with the cars for the first one. Where is this happening?

there were no cars in 1860

train cars?

annielou said:

train cars?

There you go. Or maybe it says carts or they used to call carts cars? 

Did people get over by wagons?

A Google search calls up some late-1800 newspaper references to people "killed on the cars," so that seems to have been a thing.

That first one, though -- the supposed "the" doesn't look like the others, and I keep seeing a separate stroke making an x near the end. 

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1872/12/08/page/9/article/killed-on-the-cars

this might be the article Dave saw.

The first car accident with a fatality was in 1869.  

Maybe train cars, or streetcars?  I do know my grandfather was hit by a streetcar in about 1919 in Newark, though luckily he wasn't seriously injured.

I guess it was something that they knew well enough that "killed with the cars" or "killed on the cars" didn't need any further explanation.

Here's another one -it's train cars.

November 15, 1866:

Killed on the Cars.--Charles Snyder, an employee on the Central Railroad was killed at noon Wednesday. He was a brakeman on the freight train coming West, and being on top of the cars, was struck in the head by a bridge near Chittenango and his neck broken. He was not thrown off the car, but remained lying on the top unnoticed until the train reached Manlius Station, when he was discovered still alive. He was taken into the Station House living only long enough to be taken in. A brother was also employed on the same train, another resident at Utica, and his mother between Onondaga Hill and South Onondaga.

.

(Beaten again.)

So some sort of accident on a train then, thank you all for your help.  It really had me stumped.

I spent months a year or so ago on Ancestry.com, reading passenger lists, church records on births and deaths,etc. the old English and German script, rather ornate, had certain letters - s and f - formed differently.

The lesson I learned was that most folks coming here circa 1860 to 1924, were unschooled and verbally gave their information to authorities etc which in turn were written down as heard. Spelling errors abound! My father said his family name was O'Tierney - but they lost the O coming over!

Here is when penmanship changed:

The Palmer Method of penmanship instruction was developed and promoted by Austin Palmer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was largely created as a simplified style of the "Spencerian Method", which had been the major standardized system of handwriting since the 1840s.^[1] The Palmer Method soon became the most popular handwriting system in the United States.^[2]

Under the method, students were taught to adopt a uniform system of cursive writing with rhythmic motions.

spontaneous said:

The first car accident with a fatality was in 1869.  

Maybe train cars, or streetcars?  I do know my grandfather was hit by a streetcar in about 1919 in Newark, though luckily he wasn't seriously injured.

I guess it was something that they knew well enough that "killed with the cars" or "killed on the cars" didn't need any further explanation.

Grandfather or great grandfather???  

I know that my father wasn't even BORN till 1918...

Yeah, "the cars" probably = a train accident of some kind.  I remember seeing that usage in some story about Lincoln arriving in DC after the election....

And it's faint, but could the "150" actually be "15 yr"?

In any case, lots of stuff here that can be treated/survived these days!  Makes medical costs seem a little more palatable, though we still pay way too much in this country, for all the frequently-cited reasons.

Further ramble:  imo the handwriting is elegant, though some of the letters aren't formed the way we're used to, and it looks as though there was some kind of glitch with the "the".

Interesting stuff, thanks for posting!

I believe "fits" is seizures.

My paternal grandfather. Not everything revolves around you   

Scully said:

spontaneous said:

The first car accident with a fatality was in 1869.  

Maybe train cars, or streetcars?  I do know my grandfather was hit by a streetcar in about 1919 in Newark, though luckily he wasn't seriously injured.

I guess it was something that they knew well enough that "killed with the cars" or "killed on the cars" didn't need any further explanation.

Grandfather or great grandfather???  

I know that my father wasn't even BORN till 1918...

mjc said:


And it's faint, but could the "150" actually be "15 yr"?

No, that is 150.  I posted a picture I took of a close up view to better show the handwriting, so it doesn't show the headings.  The column heading there is "Number of Days Ill" so the person who had consumption was sick for 150 days.  If my ancestor was killed in an accident that would explain why her "number of days ill" had no entry in it.

It appears that she was killed in some sort of train accident.  Her grandson, who wouldn't be born for another 15 years, ended up making a living as a salesmen who sold accessories for steam locomotives.

aha, thanks for info, makes a lot of sense that way.