These signatures from Edward Neill are at the end of a final report of the accounting of the estate of Samuel Neill from the 26th of March 1912 “to the present date.” An earlier blog post discussed how they looked slightly different and that how slight differences in signatures are normal.
It was not said that the signatures were made on the same day because I really don’t know that just by looking at this document. The document itself has no date–it only says that it will be submitted to the court during it’s June 1912 term.
The accounting was approved by Judge J. Arthur Baird and filed by the clerk of the court on 5 May 1912.
It is probable that Edward signed both lines on the same day. However it is possible that he did not. His second signature was notarized and his first was not.
In this situation it’s probably not worth a great deal of time looking at and analyzing signatures. However, there are times where such analysis is necessary, particularly when the signatures are made on documents that were created years apart.
There’s one additional potential clue to the “was it written on the same day question” that cannot be answered with these images: the color of the ink. Varying colors would imply that different pens were used and if different pens were used, it would give some credence to the “not signed on the same day” argument.
And that color question could best be answered by a full-color digital image. Colors don’t show up on digital images made from microfilm images.
Barbara Young says:
Iam inclined to say no.
The second signature appears to be written by an older hand – the letters are not so so event and the absence of the final “l” cold be that the person was perhaps elderly.
On the other hand, perhaps his situation was different. He could have beeen sitting surroundied by piles of paper and books and his hand was not so free to write.
I know I can write my name very differently depending on the conditions – am I standing and writing, holding a book with the document on top or perhaps it had been a harrowing day I was very tired and just wanted to get it over with.