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Mon 6 Mar, 2006 05:34 pm
I have a telegram dated 1920 to a solicitor in Exeter, Devon, UK. The sender, a Mrs Arnell, asks if she should return to England to protect her interests. I'd love to know where the telegram was sent from. Under the heading "Office of sending" is written Sandygageq or could just be Landygageq. I can't find that location anywhere on the net - does anyone know, please, of a place name like this?
Just a guess, but why not try a Welsh bulletin board, post something there, to see what someone comes up with . . .
Thanks very much for your suggestion, Setanta - but from other papers that came in the same batch I have the idea the place is most likely to be in Canada or possibly South Africa. Also, the telegram asks the solicitor to cable if she should return to England and I don't think anyone staying in Wales would use that wording. But I am grateful for any suggestions.
Well, one can only you provide you assistance on the basis of the amount of information you provide. Have you sent an e-mail to the Ordnance Survey people in Merry Old? They would surely have resources of their own for finding place names, even if not located in England.
like looking for a needle in a hay stack....obviously its a suburb in a town or city in a province, possibly in Canada...have you tried to research Post offices? Or you could always look up the surname Arnell in the 1920 census in Canada that might be of some help.
Thanks again for your suggestions which I'll follow up.
Could it be "gageg" instead of "gageq"?
I'm going to take a really wild stab and suggest Malta.
My first though was Wales, but my second is the Basque area of Spain.
And my third is Australia.
My guess was Greenland, but since I realise that guesses don't do whiteviolet any good this is basically just my way of bookmarking.
That said, Canada seems logical then, too - perhaps the name has some link to Inuit languages?
The place does not turn up in any atlas I'm guessing? Perhaps historical atlases, which the library should (I hope) have?
I'm still betting on Malta.
Where on Earth is Sandygageq or Landygageq?
I've checked Google, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and the CIA World Factbook 2005. Nada.
My guess for Malta is because if you Google "gageq" led to nothing but "gageg" led to lots of stuff about Malta. It seems to be a common suffix.
Of course, I can't read a single solitary word of this strange lanugage but "gageg" could be like "-istan", or "-land", or "-ville" or something.
Or it could be something else entirely.
Plus, Malta had been a British Colony before 1921 and was again after 1933.
Thanks everyone. I have emailed Ordnance Survey but no response yet. Was hoping to find someone on A2K who would say "Wow! Guess what! I was born there!" or something. It's definitely gageq at the end - the writing is very clear except for the S/L letter at the start. Anyone fancy travelling the world with me until we find it?
Is the mystery word printed or in cursive, whiteviolet?
Nothing (nothing similar as well) is the (printed) list of all places, hamlets, etc from 1874 I've here at home.
Thanks to everyone! Have contacted Ordnance Survey but no reply yet. Assumed that someone on A2K would have been born there or something! If we can't solve it soon I will just need a companion to roam the world forever with me searching for this place.Any offers?
I did a little research
Tonight, i am bored, so i decided to do a little detective work. the word sandygageq seems to be similar to Sandy Gageq. I plugged this in to google, but I didn't get any hits. Then, I tried just gageq and got several hits that translated it as 诺基亚N. Interesting!!!! I then found an on-line translator, and put that in as being chinese, and translated it into English. Oddly enough it translated 诺基亚N as being the chinese translation of Nokia. I did some research on the history of the Nokia company. I discovered that there is a part of the Nokia company called the Arnell Group. The company Nokia is based in and has its roots in Nokia, Finland. Nokia started out as the Finnish Rubber works Company, and over more than a century it has gone from the rubber industry to making cell phones. That still didn't answer the question as to the name Arnell. So I did another google search, and found this--"ARNELL, JOHN ROBERT -- Born December 13, 1871, Finland. Died Sept. 18, l932, Auburn, Wash. Cause of death: bilateral fibrocaseous cav. pulmonary tuberculosis; lung abscess; bronchial pneumonia. Widower of Emma M. Retired farmer. Father: Robert Arnell (b. Finland). Informant: Rebecca Arnell, Auburn, Wash. Burial Oct. 1, 1932, Auburn, Wash. "(http://www.genealogia.fi/emi/emi3d20r9e.htm)
My guess is that the letter came from Finland. I would imagine a relative of John Robert Arnell was the author of this letter. You can always do further research with the genealogical society of finland (http://www.genealogia.fi/indexe.htm).
Hope this helps,
The Poet
Undone poet, A million thanks! This is soooooooo interesting and I am really grateful. As it happens, the telegram and other items of postal interest sold on ebay last night and I have packaged them up to send to the buyer in Chicago. I am sure he will be delighted to hear about all this. Welcome to the site - what a glittering start!