Need Help With Initials

[TerryB]

I have never found any initials in my line or among the outliers who could match up to these initials. They were written on onion skin inside the cabinet photo of a soldier wearing a uniform that exactly matches a Mississippi infantry regiment at LOC. I sold the photo because I gave up on the idea that he was a relative, believing instead that a female ancestor from Holly Springs had a crush on him. The photo was in her trunk at my grandmother's house. Above left LOC 19th Miss Inf, above right the photo that was in the trunk. If JDR, it could stand for Jeff Davis Rifles, but the way it's done makes me think a young wife or girlfriend did it. BTW, that looks exactly like the case my original photo came in.

 

[lupaglupa]

My first thought was that is a G rather than a J, which would be GDR. It would help to have more of the handwriting - that usually clears things up.

 

[TerryB]

I used to think the boy might have been John D. Ross, a 16 year-old who was KIA in a cavalry battle in Mississippi in 1864. But the boy wasn't married, so I don't much think it's him.

 

[TerryB]

My first thought was that is a G rather than a J, which would be GDR. It would help to have more of the handwriting - that usually clears things up.

Hoping others will join in once the day progresses. I also think it could be a J. The hard part is do I have a 2, an L or a Q? or even a Y?

 

[lupaglupa]

Are you assuming the initials are paired for husband and wife?

 

[TerryB]

Are you assuming the initials are paired for husband and wife?

It would seem so, but I'm open to other ideas. Note the little dots that look like hearts. A girl did that?

 

[TerryB]

BTW, Ross is the only family name from Mississippi close enough to my line.

 

[TerryB]

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11533490/margaret-ross-wynne Her name on the stone is Ross, as if that were her maiden name. In fact, she married her first cousin, Capt. Jesse Wynne 3rd Texas Cav. , and her name was also Wynne. Her mother's maiden name was Margaret Ross, 2nd wife of my 3rd g grandfather. It's from that wife that I found reference in an unofficial genealogy online to the John D. Ross KIA in 1864.

 

[lupaglupa]

I do agree that the embellished script looks feminine. Hard to say if it represents actual paired initials. I do recall more than one occasion as a young girl writing out my supposed future initials! This picture could have been given to a sweetheart - even a fiancée - and she could have added the marks of her hoped-for name. If the man in the photo died the card would become a treasured memento. In that care though the young man wouldn't be a relative of yours.

 

[TerryB]

I do agree that the embellished script looks feminine. Hard to say if it represents actual paired initials. I do recall more than one occasion as a young girl writing out my supposed future initials! This picture could have been given to a sweetheart - even a fiancée - and she could have added the marks of her hoped-for name. If the man in the photo died the card would become a treasured memento. In that care though the young man wouldn't be a relative of yours.

Yes, that also occurred to me. In which case, John D Ross is still my best shot.

 

[TerryB]

The most likely suspect is young Alice Wynne because the photo was found in her trunk. She lived with my grandma and died in 1927. However, what few samples of her handwriting I have don't seem to match. She was born in 1848. I'm not even sure the handwriting on the drawing is hers.

 

[lupaglupa]

How old would she have been at the time? Her hand writing might have changed as she got older.