[PW] Re: ?meaning of FA = Fatilognist

[Laurence, Xan]

The suggestion of "tobacconist" seems to assume that Georgia was one of
the big tobacco-growing states, but a quick google indicates that, at
least nowadays, it ranks far below North Carolina, Tennessee and
Kentucky, and a few other states as well. Perhaps it was higher on the
list in the period covered by the census in question.

Personally, I'm inclined to agree with those who suggested
"Fatiloquist". "Fatilognist" looks like someone misread bad handwriting
-- the descender on the q might have been looped in such a way as to
suggest a g, and the u might have been written in a less curved, more
pointed, script which could make it look like an n. The
Georgia-Minnesota variation in this case might be that Georgians were
not familiar with words, especially names, ending in "quist," whereas a
Minnesotan would probably have recognized that letter combination
immediately, what with all the Lundquists, Blomquists, Dahlquists,
Palmquists, etc.-quists in this part of the country.

Xan Laurence
Associate Librarian
Cataloging and Bibliographic Management
Hennepin County Library
xlaurence at hclib.org


> -----Original Message-----
> From: project-wombat-open-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org 
> [mailto:project-wombat-open-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] 
> On Behalf Of John P. Dyson
> Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 11:41 AM
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: [PW] Re: ?meaning of FA = Fatilognist
> 
> 
> Quoting Autumn Trenton <autumntree at hotmail.com>:
> 
> > My father, who has plenty of experience transcribing 
> censuses and other
> > older records, suggested it's a mistranscription of 
> "Tobacconist."  The
> > record is from Georgia, after all.
> 
> 
> How does your father define tobacconist? Why is a tobacconist more 
> likely in Georgia than, say, in Minnesota? Maybe more likely than in 
> Utah, but otherwise I don't see it.
> 
> John Dyson
> Spanish and Portuguese
> Indiana University
> 
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