How to find Irish handwriting samples circa 1920-1950 to match a cold case?

[Nick Pelling]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to match the writing on the back of a white/cream tie found in a suitcase associated with a famous Australian cold case from 1948 (the Somerton Man). Here's a link to an image:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/anemptyglass/images/c/c3/224827_10151881313790026_305627244_n.jpg

My suspicion is that there may be something about the way the K (in KEANE) is formed that might help localise the writing to a particular part of Ireland. I don't mind the hard work of looking through thousands of images, but so far I haven't found any archive source for Irish handwriting samples circa 1920-1950 to match against.

I've had no luck in the (otherwise generally excellent) online Ireland BDM archives, and the only places I've found signatures online are American draft cards and American naturalisation forms (which are somewhat roundabout sources to be looking for Irish handwriting).

Any suggestions? All ideas, tips & hints gratefully received!

Thanks, Nick

[RoddyMcCorley]

You might try the Petty Sessions Court Registers. Not sure that there is
a free site for them I access them through Ancestry.com.

--
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In
practice, there is." Ruben Goldberg

[Nick Pelling]

On Thursday, 11 March 2021 at 20:52:21 UTC, RoddyMcCorley wrote:
> You might try the Petty Sessions Court Registers. Not sure that there is
> a free site for them I access them through Ancestry.com.
> --
> "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In
> practice, there is." Ruben Goldberg

Hi Roddy,

Thanks for the tip! I just had a look at the Petty Sessions Court Registers on ancestry.com, and unfortunately it suffers from the same problem - entries are only made by hands officially sanctioned by the court. As an aside, Ancestry also had the dog licence registration register, which had the same issue.

However, Ancestry also unexpectedly pointed me to a database of Irish soldiers' wills (mainly from WWI), which looks as though it might give me the collection of signatures I was hoping for:
http://soldierswills.nationalarchives.ie/search/sw/home.jsp

Best regards, Nick

[RoddyMcCorley]

Thanks, Nick.

I found the petty sessions court registers and the dog licenses
interesting and informative. One of my grandfathers was in the R.I.C. so
he shows up a lot. Also didn't know that he and his wife had a number of
dogs.

I not know the existence of the soldiers' wills. Makes for really sad
reading.