# WW I mystery letter solved in Fredericton



## PMedMoe (30 Nov 2011)

Article Link

The Fredericton Region Museum has solved a First World War mystery involving a letter in an unknown language.

Last summer, some students working at the museum discovered the letter tucked inside a messenger book in a trench exhibit.

The book has a bullet hole in it and is credited with saving the life of a soldier from Stanley named Arthur Cleveland Kelly.

He was running a message on the front lines when the bullet hit the book in his hip pocket. Instead of a serious or fatal wound, he was only knocked down and bruised.

The students scanned the elvish-looking script and the museum posted it on its blog. But no one could shed any light on it.

The museum's executive director Ruth Murgatroyd stepped up efforts to solve the puzzle this week after a question from an interested history buff.

She plastered the internet with the letter. Some people thought it was Icelandic, or Dutch. But it turned out to be German.

"Apparently it's early German," said Murgatroyd. "From what I understand, the script in German changed during World War Two and they stopped writing like this. It's incredibly difficult to read, but once you're used to it, it's not so bad."

On Monday, some members of the York-Sunbury historical society from Germany sat down to translate it.

Murgatroyd says it was written by a mother named Bertha in Bavaria near the Czech border to her son Ludwig.

"It's a heartfelt letter of a farm woman, telling about what has happened recently in her life," said Murgatroyd.

More at link


----------



## jollyjacktar (30 Nov 2011)

A sad tale which brings a human face to the other side of that conflict.  An interesting story nevertheless.


----------



## vonGarvin (30 Nov 2011)

Crap, I could have been famous.  As soon as I looked at it, I recognised it as the "old" German hand script.  Learning it was part of my degree.  Oh, well, so much for my chance at 15 minutes of fame for actually being productive.


Edit to add:

Here's how German used to be handwritten:


----------



## Journeyman (30 Nov 2011)

Technoviking said:
			
		

> Oh, well, so much for my chance at 15 minutes of fame for actually being productive.


----------

