Lost Surname. Can you read it?

[Elena C.]

Hi everybody!

A few months ago, I found this picture of my ancestors. I know they came from Stefanesti, in Romania, in the province of Botosani, almost on the border with Moldavia. They suddenly moved from this town around 1890 and settled in a little city called Sinaia, in the center of Romania. I don't know the reasons why. All I know is this shot was taken by Michael Schwarz in Bucharest (but cannot read the date well) and that in Sinaia, my ancestors adopted the new surname "Stefanescu" (because of their former city).

However, behind this picture I found an inital and a surname. I believe it to be the real surname of my family.
Before I was reading a sort of non-sense "Jorg(a)nta" (not a eastern-european last name), but then I understood it may well be cyrillic, or romanian/moldavian cyrillic. Can't be Esperanto ('cause of the date).

If it's cyrillic, I read a sort of Zold(...) or Gold(...). But the 3rd letter maybe looks like a cursive g. But Zogd- has no sense.
Help!!!!
Can you solve the mystery?


http://weltanschauunging.blogspot.com/
and click on the 1st 3 pics to enlarge them.
Thank you!!!

[AdiJapan]

Hard to say...

Around 1890 the use of the Latin script had already been generalized, after a short phase when a mixture of Latin and Cyrillic scripts was used, around 1850-1860. As such, it is unlikely that the name on your photo was written in Cyrillic. You can check that by reading the stamp that is partially visible in your crop (I see too little of it, but it looks like there is a capital D there).

I think the name written in full starts with a capital F. If that's correct, then you have the first four letters, Forg, so you might be able to look it up in an alphabetical list of Romanian surnames.

Unfortunately, the writing shows a mistake or a hesitation after g, and also possibly another at the end. This makes me think the name was written by the photographer (so as identify the photo) or later by someone other than your ancestor. It might also mean that the name was quite unusual.

The last three letters could be:
* u or n
* ş, s, ţ, or t
* ă, a, or o

The ending -uţă is quite common in Romanian surnames, so that could be it.

My best guess is then Forg?uţă, although that doesn't ring any bell to me.

[Lietmotiv]

I can confirm that is not cyrillic. It's Latin,but I cannot understand the letters. I understood just what AdiJapan understood

[Elena C.]

Thank you for you help, i really appreciate this!
The only reason why I thought it was cyrillic is because they came from Bessarabia. I know latin alphabet has been formalized in Romania, but they were from Stefanesti which is very close to Kisinev, Moldavia. Wikipedia "says" that there it was common to write the "T" not as a cyrillic "m", but as a latin t, just smaller.
I checked, unfortunately there's really no surname like Forg(..)uta in Romania. Neither in Eastern Europe.
Another hint I didn't tell you about may be that they were probably Jewish. (not 100% sure though. Let's say 98%). There's no Jewish surname like Forg(..)ta either though.
You think after the G there's a mistake..? I am not sure it is...
E.

[Lietmotiv]

I looked better at the writing. (by I was born in Moldova-Bessarabia)
It may be(if you're sure it's the russian alphabet) S. Bogdanici. It looks more like a singnature ,therefore the original writing in cyrlillic Moldovan would be с богданичь which can be as well a Romanian or even Romanian-Jewish name.The problem was that the 'B' looks strange,but it is surely a signature.
Note that Moldovan cyrillic was different from the Romanian cyrlillic.

[Elena C.]

Multumesc frumos Andrei!
You see, I didn't know Romanian and Moldavian cyrillic were different.
And in this specific case I am not sure it is cyrillic, but my greatgrandma's name begun with S (she's in the picture), while none of them with C. That's why I started suspecting it could have not been latin alphabet!
Bogdanici? this does exist! But still i think the first capital letter looks like a sort of "I"(before the reform of cyrillic) or a Z.. That would be a weird B..
If only the second letter was big, I could have said it was a perfect "iu"..
So you think the second letter is G? I was thinking about one of those not pronounciated "soft/strong signs" too..
But really, I am sure you know better than me.
Thank you again

[Lietmotiv]

Now we're sure. It's cyrillic since her first name begun with S and the first letter is S(c)

all right : Talking about the first later,It can be a signature,and in these cases,the letters can have a weird form. The second letter could have been iu only if the link between o and I like ю was in the middle not up there. You can see that the link between O and I is on top..which is not the cause of ю in handwriting. But again,it's a signature so everything is possible. In this moment,considering that handwriting the only name which exists in Romanian for that writing and is Bogdanici/Bogdanich'(in English transliteration)

I hope I was helpful!

[Arcane]

Here's my guess. I think this is the transitional mix of Cyrillic and Latin. The name after "С." seems to be Жорданита for me. It's possible the last letter is ъ. That was a pretty common feature back then.

[Lietmotiv]

so you say it's Zhordănitsă? Iordăniţă(jordanitsa) sounds more Romanian

[Elena C.]

I analysed the picture again and in the backlight i clearly noticed that the dash above the T is a lot longer and elaborated than what it seemed at first sight. This doesn't really help, but suggests that the surname wasn't written in a rush, without attention. I therefore reject the hypotesis the apparent mess in the middle is just a scribble and a mistake.

I thought it could have been a transitional alphabet too, but didn't dare such an hypotesys. Glad u did.
Picture in hand, I re-wrote the surname paying attention to the ink appearing in the backlight.
This is how the writing must have appeared 109 years ago: http://weltanschauunging.blogspot.com

Let's make a list of the hypotesis made..