Really Cool Bracelet With Names From Colonial Homesite, Other Relics Too!

[FoundInNC]

***Update on identity of "bracelet" Thanks to ErikInNJ, I have a positive identification. The names are the manufacturer of an 18th century Lorgnette or spectacle company. He was able to identify them because the only surviving pair was recovered in an archaeological dig in Burma in 1914. This was documented in a text that is published in Google Books(an amazing reference). I dug one today, and some fellow dug one a hundred years ago. It sure is neat how things come together. It is still probably my favorite find of the day!

Back to the original story......

Hey Everyone, I had to cut my hunt short I was so excited to see what I had found. I went to one of the oldest homesites that I am allowed to hunt and found some good stuff in a short 30 minute dig around the foundation of the house. My first signal that I dug is the most significant, I think. I thought it was a copper wire at first, but before I put it in my pouch, I noticed a letter on the side. I started brushing dirt off and it was covered in letters, that made NAMES! I was shocked because I love finding personal effects like that. The other two finds would have made my day to find either, but they were my second and third finds! The second find was that cast tombac button, which I have never dug or seen one like, and the third find was a neat piece of slate that when I was rubbing the dirt off, I noticed it had a hole in it, for a NECKLACE! I dug the slate while digging a nail signal. There are tons of pottery shards.

The bracelet is missing a section, but the four names that I can see are, *in this order:

GEORG WEIGET (or WETGET)
*** (three stars)
JON ERHARD
MAY SEFTIGE
ERREN JO (then it is broken)

Any help on the bracelet would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for looking, now back to the site to dig up some more stuff, that will be added later tonight.

One bit of assistance I have on the identity of the individuals on the bracelet is that there is a small cemetary about 300 feet from the housesite, but that is ALL there is on the 100 acre farm. The tombstones are simple rocks marking head and foot. The only tombstone that is engraved reads JOHN STEPHENS March 20 1795 Feb 29 1851. Hopefully this helps.






Eyeglass frame and large cent for size comparison


some hammered nails, half a pewter button, and a tombac material button? wagon wheel design


GORG WEIGET

JON ERHARD

MAY SEFTIGE

ERREN JO or TO (JO is the beginning of a last name)

 

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[Wily Dunk]

Very nice finds.. Keep searching and digging, I want to see and know more about these finds.. Very interesting.. . .

 

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[Steve in PA]

I am almost certain that it is a cast tombac button. It is solid, and heavy. I do not know how old it is, but I do believe that I am on an early site. Does it being solid make you think it is 1750s-60s still?

Maybe I'm wrong, tough to tell for sure without holding it. I would think if it was solid cast it would have a drilled eye shank. I still think it dates to 1750 - 1770 give or take.

 

[screwynewy]

Brad, those are some great finds. I can't wait to see what you can find out about the names on the bracelet. You have a winner site there. Let me know if you need help with it

 

[Erik in NJ]

Thanks FoundInNC....hard to tell exactly what the names are by the original photos....is it possible to get more pics at different angles? As I mentioned the current pics don't show the bottoms of the letters. Thanks for any additional info. And again sweet find!

Erik, I am open to any and all opinions on the letters and names. I think that the first name could be GEORG WEIGET. The second name is JOH or TOH ERHARD. The third name is MAY SEFTIGE. The last one is where the bracelet is broken, and it reads simly ERREN JO, then it is broken.....I looked HARD for the missing piece, and will continue to.

 

[FoundInNC]

Thanks Erik! I will take some more pictures, but the letters are not visible on the bottom of the bracelet. I have nonstop been searching family trees and have found NOTHING to go off of. What if the family was a slave family? Would I be able to tell somehow?

 

[Erik in NJ]

I'm pretty good at decyphering names/characters in different typefaces (notice the typeface used contains serifs) given enough of the text, but I'm sure there are those here who are much better at researching the names themselves. The fact that those named are all "printed" on the same piece of metal certainly has a great deal of significance. The fact what we believe are the "surnames" is significant in an of itself. Sounds like you have a pretty interesting mystery here! More and better pics would help a great deal (when you have a chance to take and post them). You may also want to put a post on the "What Is It?" forum as some of the folks that frequent that forum are excellent resources. I do hope you find the other fragment of that "bracelet."

 

[FoundInNC]

Erik, I have tried to take different pictures, but they all look the same. I will tell you what I believe the names are at this point:

GEORG WEIGEL
JOH ERHARD
MAY SEELIGE
ERREN JO<fracture point>

I am not finding anything on any of these folks in Orange County, North Carolina. Hopefully my friend, GTOAST99 will help me with the genealogy work. I do not even know a time period to be searching. Were these grandparents? Children? Famous people of the time? Classmates? I CANNOT WAIT to find out what the significance of this bracelet is!

 

[Erik in NJ]

I believe your second name on the item (as listed) is "Joh. Erhard" -- where Joh. (notice the period after the "h") is perhaps an abbreviation for Johan or Johannes. If you Google the quoted text "Joh. Erhard" you will get a number of hits. Oddly it looks like they used a "." as a separator after "Erhard" as opposed to a "*" (pay close attention to where they used "." and "*"). So far it seems that most of the hits I am getting on the various names indicate a Germanic origin and not Dutch as I originally thought. If you rub some olive oil or water on the metal it may help make the text stand out better for the photos. Hope this helps.

 

[gtoast99]

Hey Brad, you were right, that is a cool piece! I told you I'd check it out tonight, but not be able to research it until Sunday at the earliest. Well, I just couldn't resist, so I've been looking for several hours now! Nothing yet though... Curiouser and curiouser!

 

[Erik in NJ]

I think you need to determine whether the "*" is used to separate person's names or the first and last name of each person. It is possible that the names were listed with the surname first followed by the given name. It would help if you could type out the text as you see it as one long string of text with all of the separators that you see including all of the "*" and "." etc. Re. "May" I am still seeing "MAT" here, but I'm just looking at the photo. I also don't see "ERREN" very clearly in your photo...looks like "E * REN"??

 

[FoundInNC]

****As I see it on the bracelet from break to break***

<fracture> GEORG WEIGEL * * * JOH ERHARD . MAY * SEELIGE ERREN JO <fracture>

Only the tops of the names are visible, but I am nearly 100% certain on GEORG, JOH ERHARD, MAY and ERREN. The surnames of GEORG and MAY are debatable.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Check this link out!!!!

Report of the Superintendent - Burma. Archaeological Survey - Google Books

The "bracelet" is a band from a set of spectacles that is described in this book! This is very interesting!

 

[FoundInNC]

Check this link out!!!!

Report of the Superintendent - Burma. Archaeological Survey - Google Books

GREAT RESEARCH! Glasses rims! WOW! Looks like someone else dug some in 1914!

 

[Erik in NJ]

It looks as though you may not be missing a piece after all! I think the person who inspected the spectacles was wrong with "Edward" as this piece clearly shows "Erhard" and the mysterious "IOH" that they quote may actually be JOH an abbreviation for Johan/Johannes that I mentioned earlier. Now, since a pair of these spectacles were dug in Burma, the other relics dug should give you the proper timeframe. Now, why were the names on the rim of the spectacles? I'm surmising they were manufactured in Germany and these are the manufacturers. You should have a lot more to go on now with Google. Looks like this band of copper dates back to ca. 1785 or so. I would be cool to get a copy of that book... Well, looks like these answers point to more questions regarding your find...

GREAT RESEARCH! Glasses rims! WOW! Looks like someone else dug some in 1914!

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Very nice finds! The bracelet seems older and I don't think it has a "J", instead is probably an "I" as the letter "J" is relatively new to us, like after 1840ish. The name Joseph was spelled Ioseph, Johann was spelled Iohann. Congrats and HH, Mike

 

[hamiddetecting]

Nice haul!!

 

[CRUSADER]

Very nice finds! The bracelet seems older and I don't think it has a "J", instead is probably an "I" as the letter "J" is relatively new to us, like after 1840ish. The name Joseph was spelled Ioseph, Johann was spelled Iohann. Congrats and HH, Mike

I was going to say the same, it is a 'I' but is interchangeable with a 'J'.

Steve is right the tombac button is cast in two pieces. (mostly found seperated by the plough when I get them)

If you are talking about the photo with the nails. The half a piece looks Lead & the round piece next to it is close to pewter (lead-alloy) & they don't look button like to me, more like the lead tokens I find.

 

[gtoast99]

Not exactly yours, but very similar. Found here.

 

[gtoast99]

Here's another one.

 

[b0v13]

WOW!! I don't know what is more impressive the amazing find or the community research!! Nice work all round... CHEERS!!