Sticks & Stones: Three Centuries of North Carolina Gravemarkers
(Margaret Ruth Little, 1998)
<https://books.google.com/books?id=wb7fAAAAMAAJ&q=%22backward+letters%22+tombstone&dq=%22backward+letters%22+tombstone&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiRvu2HwanSAhVIYyYKHSX7D2YQ6AEIOTAF>
p151 "Clodfelter is the only German stonecutter in North Carolina known
to have signed a/gravestone/. ... Furthermore, the misspelling
and/backward letters/are typical of the lettering on many German stones
throughout the county."
On 2/24/2017 12:52 PM, Linda Derry wrote:
> Pete,
>
> I'd put my money on illiteracy, but here is another idea you could
> research since Maryland was an entry point for many Germans. Part of my
> family came into America through Maryland and settled in Virginia and moved
> west through Pa., Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and so forth. Some of my early
> ancestors practiced German folk magic or medicine. Something often called
> "Pow-wow." There are many old Pow-Wow practice books reprinted and
> available today (even some in English) so you could look there for
> something on backward writing.
>
> This, of course is a long shot, because O'Neal is not a very German
> sounding name, but you never know who might have married into the family!
>
>
>
> Linda Derry
> Site Director, Old Cahawba Archaeological Park
> Alabama Historical Commission
> 9518 Cahaba Road, Orrville, AL 36767
> park: 334/ 875-2529
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 6:12 AM, Pete Regan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Does anyone out there have information on the potential meaning of
>> backward characters on gravestones? I have a crudely carved gravestone in a
>> nineteenth century, family plot that was part of a central Maryland farm,
>> with all of the D's, N's, J's, and 1's carved backward. Plenty of folks
>> have suggested dyslexia or partial illiteracy as potential explanations,
>> but I have a few archaeologist/historian colleagues who seem to recall that
>> backward orthography can have specific meanings on gravestones. For what
>> it's worth, here's the text as it appears on the stone (again, picture the
>> aforementioned letters backward):
>>
>> WM ONEAL
>> DIED.JAN
>> THE.1.1893
>> AGE.72.
>>
>> The stone appears as the final photo in the larger site's state
>> registration form, located here: https://mht.maryland.gov/
>> secure/medusa/PDF/Howard/HO-1109.pdf
>>
>> For some physical context, two adjacent stones (1906 and 1917) are
>> professionally carved marble markers without any "incorrect" writing. The
>> remainder of the graveyard consists of partial lines of unmodified,
>> vertical slabs of fieldstones located west of the carved stones, presumably
>> as markers for the graves of servants, the enslaved, or the poor.
>>
>> Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
>>
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