I've seen it in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It's a bit difficult to automatically say yes, she used the first letter of her maiden name when the record you're looking at involves names like Smith, Jones, Black, White. I tend to think maybe, but maybe not. But if the names were to be replaced by Zimbowski, Izambord or Gwynned and the record looked like this:
John Izambord sells 300 acres to Andrew Zimbowski; witnesses are Jack Gwynned, Alan Zimbowski, Cuthbert Zimbowski; Mary (her mark "Z") Izambord relinquishes dowry
Wouldn't it be safe to tentatively identify the wife of John Izambord as Mary Zimbowski?
Sunshine49 <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Sorry I can't help you; the documents I've looked at all have a large
X and "her mark" if they could not write their name. Have you seen
this in several places, or might it have been used in a certain
locality?
Nancy
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I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
--Daniel Boone
On Jan 12, 2007, at 5:24 AM, Clara Callahan wrote:
> In colonial Virginia was it common for females who could not write
> to use the first letter of their maiden names as their mark on
> legal documents?
>
> For example, If a piece of land was sold by a man named Gunther
> to a man named Jones and if the witnesses were named John Doe and
> Joseph Doe and if Gunther's wife relinquished dower and made her
> mark "D," would it be reasonable to think that her maiden name
> might be Doe?
>
> Clara
>
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