Bob,

just as an ancedote, I have inherited a sampler that a my German speaking
grandmother made on the voyage over to American in the 1880s, and some of
the letters are backwards on it.

Linda Derry
Site Director, Old Cahawba Archaeological Park
Alabama Historical Commission
9518 Cahaba Road, Orrville, AL 36767
park:  334/ 875-2529
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On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 3:09 PM, Bob Skiles <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>      Sticks & Stones: Three Centuries of North Carolina Gravemarkers
>      (Margaret Ruth Little, 1998)
>      <https://books.google.com/books?id=wb7fAAAAMAAJ&q=%22backwa
> rd+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!
>>>
>>>