Signatures of Grandfathers

I feel a special thrill seeing signatures of my ancestors. Yesterday I saw a document that has signatures of two ancestors of different generations of my Kentucky family.

My great grandfather, Moses Eckles Nichols, was just twenty-one when his father, Charles Nichols, died in 1862. He was the oldest child in the family and thus the only one of adult age. That must be why he was appointed administrator of his father's estate. His father died aged forty-five leaving no will. Moses was required to post an administrator bond. That document from the Scott County court contains his signature along with that of his sole surety, his maternal grandfather Charles Eckles, my 3rd great grandfather.¹

Charles was then seventy-four and the signature looks a bit wobbly, but quite legible. He spelled his surname Eckels as it appears in two signatures I have found of his father, Robert Eckles. Moses Eckles Nichols had it as his middle name, but spelled it the way I am used to it: Eckles. In that spelling it was passed down to his grandson as a middle name. That was my father so the name was always familiar.

1. ”Kentucky Probate Records, 1727-1990,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GP9G-Y8W?i=83&cc=1875188&cat=137670 : viewed 25 June 2018), digital film 004816099, image 84, Scott County Administrator Bonds, 1856-1874 (unpaginated), estate of Charles Nichols, 1862.