Can't make this out - help, please

[CaroleW]

Another post here

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=850902.new#new

[majm]

Thanks for the new scan. It's much clearer

I still think it reads

Can you own
this your father   -  or -   this our father  (with a sratched out letter before 'our')
in 1918 war

Gadget

Yes, 

What if your first name is Warwick and your sister is Candace, 

Can     

you own this our father in  1918   

War

It would be unusual to refer to the War as 1918 War.   

JM

[Karen McDonald]

It would be unusual to refer to the War as 1918 War.   

JM

That is a good point.

I find the whole thing more than confusing...OK, so my letters vary according to mood/day/weather  , but the writing on the post card is extremely inconsistent.

If it is indeed "Can" and "own", then why is the "n" so different in the 2 examples? The same goes for the "r" on the end of "father" and "war". Completely different, although both are final letters.

I keep coming back to look at this, but I am none the wiser... 

[raonull4]

inverted i m seeing 1st letter of 1st word as possibly b
a name such as ben,
so possibly someone telling ben
this is your father in 1918 war

[MaxD]

I don't think the first line has anything at all to do with military speak. 
I'd read it a something like Sam gave (own) this, missing comma, this missing of your father .........

Copied to the other thread as there are two of them!

MaxD

[Rhododendron]

Or it could be "Sam. you own this..." 

[Karen McDonald]

If we are suggesting names, how about Ian? 

Ian, you own this. Ian's father in 1918 war.

Or possibly even Jan. 

@ STG: Do we know the names of anybody even remotely connected to the man in the photo? Any Ians, Jans or Sams?! 

[JenB]

The verb 'to own' is sometimes used in the sense of recognising someone.

Oxford English Dictionary
transitive. To acknowledge as an acquaintance; to recognize as familiar. Now Irish English, Scottish, and English regional (northern).

and The Dialect Dictionary: to recognise, identify, acknowledge an acquaintanceship

https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi04wrig/page/394/mode/2up


So I think it says
'Can you own
this your father...'

meaning perhaps 'can you recognise this (as) your father....'

(as suggested by Gadget in reply #4)

[Gadget]

Thanks, Jennifer.

I had hoped that that meaning would have been taken up as I'd heard it in the past.


Gadget