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Trying to decipher this Philadelphia Street address from early 1900's.

1622 Cambria St Phila or 1622 Caroline St Phila

There's another address on the manifest (5th from bottom) that looks similar and is spelled 'Cambrio', but there is only a Cambria St in Philadelphia.

http://i.imgur.com/zPAhYvn.png

THANKS for help.

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  • 1946 Street C Index i.imgur.com/Cun662n.jpg 1859 Street C Index i.imgur.com/WAslVC8.png
    – Bob
    Nov 27, 2013 at 19:49
  • Are you sure it is 1622 rather than 1699? My untrained eye agrees with "Cambria".
    – PolyGeo
    Nov 27, 2013 at 22:20
  • Can you find the friend / relative in contemporary city directories or the nearest census?
    – Jan Murphy
    Dec 1, 2013 at 18:55

2 Answers 2

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I am by no means an expert, but I would say it is Cambria St .

First, off there are the wrong number of strokes for it to be Caroline. There is the obvious C and a, then the r and o. So far so good, but after the l, there is the i, n, an extra stroke and an e. (Assuming for the sake of illustration it says Caroline). That extra stroke doesn't make sense in there as part of the n or e. However, the strokes perfectly match Cambria.

Also, the character between the a and the tall letter (l / b) could not be an r and an o. The o doesn't come together on the bottom at all.

Comparing it to the surrounding handwriting also lends to the Cambria theory. Notice the similarities between the n in this entry and the n above in Highland Ave, Brother John, and Cleveland.

Of these reasons, the strongest is the first, but I think they all further prove that it says Cambria St Phila .

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When trying to decipher handwriting like this it is useful to have a larger sample to work with. This enables looking at other entries and confirming how individual letter are written. It can also help to invert the image.

I am not so certain that it is in fact Cambria as suggested by others looking at the inverted image. As above I would like to see a larger sample of the page before commenting further on what I think it is.

Inverted original image scan

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