Yes. I think the second letter is an "o" followed by an "r" with an "n" next and finally a "y" or __orny. The larger first letter which might be part of a first and second letters has me perplexed.
Bruce
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. - Aristotle Onassis 03 Apr 2016 08:11:05pm
re: Need Help With Surname Script
Are the surnames the same? Letter between relatives?
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"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou"
Here is the complete cover. Interestingly, the violet handstamp at lower left states:
Service Place
Field Newspaper
"The Front"
Field Post Number 44912
The printed field post number matches Josef's number on the back of the cover also written in pencil as is the address on the front. I'm wondering if the writer was a reporter for the propaganda rag mentioned.
RE: The address; It's that darned first letter or possible two letters. I believe that the writer has the same last name as the addressee.
Forny is interesting but I think that is a French name. The other two names do not seem German.
Bruce
Jansimon is surely your man for this query, based on earlier posts about German handwriting.
For what it's worth, I'd suggest the initial letters are St... My first guess was Stang, then Starig, Storing, Stonig or even Stoning.
But you need a German, or at least European member with experience in handwritten documents for this, and an acquaintance, at least, with likely German surnames.
They hardly look like they were written by the same hand.
Look at the well-formed {r}s in the addressee name, and the sloppy {r}s in the sender name.
Knew two 'Horney' families in NYC.
But I think that the surname begins with {N}, as the {H} in the town name of the address and the {H} in the title of the sender are, again, very well-formed ... so {H} it ain't.
I would have gone with 'Nancy', but for what surely is an {r} ...
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
Comparing the second two letters to those in "Marie" make them indisputably "or" so we have
__ o r .. then .. __ __ .. or possibly .. __ __ __ .. then .. y
I think ikeyPikey is right that the first letter is "N" so I'm going 90% balance of probabilities with NOR to start and Y to end.
"r" would be easily discernible by the flat downward-sloping top if it wasn't hidden by the postmark. And given the easy flow of the writing in Joseph's surname it makes me think other high probability vowels might be "a" "e" or "u" (no dot indicating an "i" nor a loop at top for an "o") and consonants "m" "n" "v" or "w".
My guess is ... NORWAY
Please send my prize via surface mail with a nice recent commemorative.
Thanks all for the suggestions. And will forward to Jan-Simon's response later, too. I kicked around the possibility of the last letter as z and that may be the case.
I like the St possibility. When that is applied and using Jan-Simon's suggestion that the last letter might be z, I arrived at possibly Storz or Stonz...
I'm fairly certain both surnames are the same. I think the writer wrote out the address in a neater hand than his quick scrawl on the back for his return.
I don't think the last letter is 'z' in the name. If you look at the address line Wien 23... the last word is Bez; a short form of Bezirk (district).
Look how that last letter has been formed; a distinct horizontal line in the centre (which is how I write the letter Z and is a Germanic habit.) plus a right pointing foot.
This turned out to be more difficult than I thought. This is not the typical German handwriting of that period, but that is explicable by the fact that the addressee is in Vienna. The name could very well be Storny or Starny which may be Bohemian in origin. I also played with the option the first letter is a capital N but I think St is more plausible.
I still think that the final letter can be a z but y makes more sense.
Thanks for the effort, Jansimon. Yes, I was just reminded earlier that the surnames in Vienna can be a hodgepodge of the various former Austro-Hungarian empire peoples.
Since this solder was posted to the Third Reich propaganda newspaper "Die Front," I may be able to find his name using that entity in my search.
It would seem that Field Post Number 44912, was associated with "Die Front" Field newspaper of the 18th Army Propaganda-Kompanie 621.
As for the name on the letter; after trying all manner of combinations, I felt the name may have been Slasny. I then searched for that name. Here again is the image I favoured, as opposed to the scrawl of the addressee:
Listed in a 1942 copy of "Lander Bank Wien" 'Geschaeftsadressbuch Industrie: Handel und Handwerk (a classified business index under 'trade and craft'), is the name Maria Slasny. Although the last letter of the first name is 'a' and not 'e' in this instance, the spelling may not have been correct.
This may be a red herring but the point is the surname 'Slasny' might be a candidate.