The FamilySearch Indexing project helps point to information on old handwriting styles by the Genealogical Society of Finland. I didn't find the writing samples helpful for 1800s American records. In particular, there is a form of lowercase e called an "open E". It looks like an uppercase E, but has the height of a lowercase character.
To see some examples, let's look at the two words from last week. Separating each letter from the others, it is a little easier to see the name "Emeline." The first E is, of course, capitalized. Once separated from the M, the second E is obviously an Open E. The last letter is debatable, but since Emeline is a recognized given name and Emelim is not, it is likely the last letter is an E and probably an Open E at that.
The second word is also shown below, separated into its individual letters. Knowing about the Open E makes it easy to see the surname "McKenzie." Note that the penman used both a regular E and an Open E in the same name. Does anybody know if there was a rule explaining when each was used?
Did you get Emeline and McKenzie as your answers last week?
Did it ever occur to you that instead of the first name being "Emeline" that it could be "Emelein?" Emelein is also a known surname according to a quick check in Google. If you look at the letter following L, it appears to be a traditionally Closed E followed by an I with the dot just above it in your original example. However, in the 2nd separated example, that dot has migrated slightly to the left to align with the letter after L rather than remaining in its original position. This is just a thought.
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