Help please, what does this say?

[Debra A]

On February 14th, 1876, Robert Donston Stephenson, using the name Roslyn D'Onston Stephenson, married Anne Deary at St. James Church Islington.

Posted below is Stephenson's signature from an image of the register book entry of St. James Church: London Metropolitan Archives, Saint James, Holloway, Register of marriages, P83/JS1, Item 008

Underneath the 'Roslyn' section of the signature appears some other smaller writing that appears to form part of the signature.

Can anyone decipher what it actually says or have an explanation for why it appears there?
Is it Greek?



Thanks for any help or information on what it is.

[Monty]

Hey Debs,

Im thinking Sanskrit...let me check it.

Monty

[Debra A]

Cheers Monty, anything you can find out on this would be great.

I was thinking Greek as I thought I recognised several greek alphabet characters.
The first word in particular (as I think it is two words) looks like it ends with the two different lower case versions of sigma, the last only for use at the end of a word I believe.

[lynn cates]

Greek to me

Hello Debra. It does indeed bear a superficial resemblance to Greek If so, it looks like:

gamma, alpha, tau, omicron, (lower case terminal) sigma.

Next word:

rho, omega, beta, omicron, epsilon (this one is a stretch), pi, (upper case) sigma. (Why upper case?)

gatos? roboeps?

I'd better stop there as we have enough silly ripper theories already. I hope no one claims this as Greek for "catch me when you can."

Cheers.
LC

[Debra A]

Hi Lynn, thanks for that.
I see something simialr too, those are roughly the ones I have picked out as well.
I also see the the mathematical sign for integration at the end....not too sure about that one though.

No silly Ripper theories here...just wondering what sort of person would add something like this underneath their wedding signature, and what it might mean.

[lynn cates]

summation

Hello Debra. Well, it does look like the mathematical sign for summation (or the sum function). Of course, that would be identical to the Greek upper case sigma.

The integration sign (at least as employed in the Leibnizian notation [not the Newtonian]) is an elongated "s."

Cheers.
LC

[evilina]

nu alpha gamma (or tau) nu (or upsilon) sigma

rho omega beta ? tau gamma sigma???????????????????


I don't know what it says, but i did have a look at the image on ancestry to see if that made it any clearer (I was actually looking for any other similar markings or if it was an error that had come through from a facing page). It didn't help, but i did notice that Anne, the wife, wrote her name under the line for it, so do we think that whatever it is, it was written by Stephenson himself, before she did (so she didn't have room to put her name where it should be)?

[ChrisGeorge]

I thought at first it might be "Robert" in Greek but that would be Ροβερτ

From WikiAnswers

I'm curious about the long snaking line that stretches from the ending upper case sigma to fit between "Roslyn" and "D'Onston" as if the Greek is an insertion to go after "Roslyn."

Chris

[lynn cates]

integration

Hello Chris. Now that DOES look like an integration sign!

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

dipthong

Hello again, Chris. I say, if my conjecture of omicron, epsilon is a dipthong, and the pi turns out to be an ill formed rho followed closely by tau, then perhaps it would be roberts after all.

This would be perfect for one possessing an ego like D'Onstons.

Cheers.
LC

[ChrisGeorge]

Hello Chris. Now that DOES look like an integration sign!

Cheers.
LC

Or else it means that D'Onston was a snake in the grass. Well we knew that already.

Hello again, Chris. I say, if my conjecture of omicron, epsilon is a dipthong, and the pi turns out to be an ill formed rho followed closely by tau, then perhaps it would be roberts after all.

This would be perfect for one possessing an ego like D'Onstons.

Cheers.
LC

I'm wondering about the first word that looks something like "vatos" -- could it be a Greek word meaning "also known as"???

Chris

[Debra A]

I'm curious about the long snaking line that stretches from the ending upper case sigma to fit between "Roslyn" and "D'Onston" as if the Greek is an insertion to go after "Roslyn."

Chris

Chris, that is the one I thought looked like an integration sign. To me it ties in the signature with the writing underneath.
Evilina, I also checked it wasn't something from another page, but I think that the sign I've been talking about at the end of the wording shows that it was meant to be there as it goes up from the end of the word and into the signature.

[Chris]

The first word could be gamos - marriage - if the third letter were read as a mu, though it doesn't look much like one.

[lynn cates]

Latin script

Hello Chris. Well, if he is mixing Latin script with the Greek, it could be "vatos."

Cheers.
LC

[ChrisGeorge]

I have enlisted the help of a friend who was brought up in the Greek community of Baltimore. Dino got back to me with the following information:

"the first word is natos - perhaps short for thanatos - death. i'll work on it and get back you on it."

Chris