this was written in 1916 on an English form (so these are English letters
The word on the left I am quite confident is “Greece”
The worst on the right should be the city/town in Greece.
To me, it looks maybe like:
* Gosterissi
* Gosterikki
* Gosteritti
something like that. It’s really the last three letters that I Find to me the most confusing.
There is a possibility that the scribe was mistaken about this being. a place in Greece. My grandfather was born in Anatolia and lived for a time in Albania as well. So it is possible that this place is in Albania or Turkey. But nothing (in any of the three countries) comes up when I google it
Would anyone here happen to have any ideas?
Thanks so much!
CrazyLamb_ on
Not sure what it says, but he was definitely a doctor
If he was born in Anatolia, there’s also a chance that the inscription on the right is actually Turkish with latin characters. If it’s a northern epirote village it will be way harder to find since there are some cases of the same village having different names depending on the language. For example if he was from an Aromanian village or wrote it in the Aromanian dialect it will certainly be more difficult to find. It would he helpful if you gave us more info!
AlekosPaBriGla on
Just FYI, the maximum distance you can claim is your grandparents have to have been citizens of Greece
andrei-ilasovich on
In isolation it’s impossible to read, having more or the document or record would allow to at least better understand the handwriting of the scribe and make a better guess, but you might be grasping at straws here, what an American scribe with no knowledge of Greek misheard from an immigrant with heavy accent can be anything.
FluidAd642 on
I read Gosteriste. But I am not sure if the left word is greece. Although, you have to know that 1916 was only 3 years after the liberation of northern Greece and many villages had still their ottoman/slavic names, which they gradually changed until circa 1940.
louisatjr on
is this from ellis island?
JuOlNa on
Could it be that your ancestors filled out an imaginary place in whatever form this was?
byblosm on
to me it looks like gösterişte, which in Turkish i believe means “in appearance” or “in showing”
edit – any chance you could show us if the word gosterişte appears in other parts in the same column too? it could be tbat it is a Turkish administrative beaurucratic term, rather than a town name.. something like “Greece, upon display”.. or “Greece (as claimed nominally) upon presentation of document/self (at registration)”
FuckingIrritating on
Since it’s English, I think the handwriting subs would be a better resource than this one. The first letter of the second word doesn’t seem to be a G, as it’s different from the first letter of the word you’re confident is Greece.
papajo_r on
Personally I cant tell what the letters are to begin with (as well as most of the people commenting here if that has not been clear to you) the handwritting is messy it uses cursive and its 3 pixels..
Its very hard to tell what the place for a name is if you cant even make out single letters.
At least if you could provide the full document we could maybe infer what each letter in this messy handwriting means which would help a lot…
is the first letter a y for example? because to me it looks like two letters an l and a j but that wouldnt make sense…
Then follows an a? an i? then an o, probably. Then it looks like a series of 3 e like eee but obviously that cant be the case so r and ee ? v and ee? s c and e? in any case it doesnt make sense for a Greek name if its indeed a sce ending then it sounds slavic or albanian to me but I am neither, so take this with a grain of salt.
This is what gemini 3 pro says about it given the context that some american wrote it [https://gemini.google.com/share/cc18a07707f2](https://gemini.google.com/share/cc18a07707f2)
But personally non of the guesses make sense to me (as far as matching the letters goes)
12 Comments
So for context:
this was written in 1916 on an English form (so these are English letters
The word on the left I am quite confident is “Greece”
The worst on the right should be the city/town in Greece.
To me, it looks maybe like:
* Gosterissi
* Gosterikki
* Gosteritti
something like that. It’s really the last three letters that I Find to me the most confusing.
There is a possibility that the scribe was mistaken about this being. a place in Greece. My grandfather was born in Anatolia and lived for a time in Albania as well. So it is possible that this place is in Albania or Turkey. But nothing (in any of the three countries) comes up when I google it
Would anyone here happen to have any ideas?
Thanks so much!
Not sure what it says, but he was definitely a doctor
Chatgpt :Corinth
Gemini:Sotiritsa(Σωτηρίτσα),Sotirianika(Σωτηριάνικα)
Mistral lechat:Στερνά (Sterná)
Personally –>> no idea
If he was born in Anatolia, there’s also a chance that the inscription on the right is actually Turkish with latin characters. If it’s a northern epirote village it will be way harder to find since there are some cases of the same village having different names depending on the language. For example if he was from an Aromanian village or wrote it in the Aromanian dialect it will certainly be more difficult to find. It would he helpful if you gave us more info!
Just FYI, the maximum distance you can claim is your grandparents have to have been citizens of Greece
In isolation it’s impossible to read, having more or the document or record would allow to at least better understand the handwriting of the scribe and make a better guess, but you might be grasping at straws here, what an American scribe with no knowledge of Greek misheard from an immigrant with heavy accent can be anything.
I read Gosteriste. But I am not sure if the left word is greece. Although, you have to know that 1916 was only 3 years after the liberation of northern Greece and many villages had still their ottoman/slavic names, which they gradually changed until circa 1940.
is this from ellis island?
Could it be that your ancestors filled out an imaginary place in whatever form this was?
to me it looks like gösterişte, which in Turkish i believe means “in appearance” or “in showing”
edit – any chance you could show us if the word gosterişte appears in other parts in the same column too? it could be tbat it is a Turkish administrative beaurucratic term, rather than a town name.. something like “Greece, upon display”.. or “Greece (as claimed nominally) upon presentation of document/self (at registration)”
Since it’s English, I think the handwriting subs would be a better resource than this one. The first letter of the second word doesn’t seem to be a G, as it’s different from the first letter of the word you’re confident is Greece.
Personally I cant tell what the letters are to begin with (as well as most of the people commenting here if that has not been clear to you) the handwritting is messy it uses cursive and its 3 pixels..
Its very hard to tell what the place for a name is if you cant even make out single letters.
At least if you could provide the full document we could maybe infer what each letter in this messy handwriting means which would help a lot…
is the first letter a y for example? because to me it looks like two letters an l and a j but that wouldnt make sense…
Then follows an a? an i? then an o, probably. Then it looks like a series of 3 e like eee but obviously that cant be the case so r and ee ? v and ee? s c and e? in any case it doesnt make sense for a Greek name if its indeed a sce ending then it sounds slavic or albanian to me but I am neither, so take this with a grain of salt.
This is what gemini 3 pro says about it given the context that some american wrote it [https://gemini.google.com/share/cc18a07707f2](https://gemini.google.com/share/cc18a07707f2)
But personally non of the guesses make sense to me (as far as matching the letters goes)