IRVINE, Francis. Drumoak, Aberdeenshire 8.2.1786 — Edinburgh 16.12.1855. British (Scottish) Colonial Officer in India. Son of Alexander I. and Jean Forbes, mother died soon after his birth. Joined army as cadet in 1804 and left for India. Served in Bengal Native Infantry, resigned as Captain in 1824. Already 1820 moved…
HRKAL, Eduard. 18?? — Vienna 11.8.1948. Czech Linguist. Called Professor (1939), probably at the gymnasium of Mariańské Lázně. Active as early as 1895 and 1910 (articles about the French dialect of Picardie). He suggested that Etruscan belongs to the “Turnian division of Ural-Altaic” and apparently invented Turkic etymologies for Etruscan…
GRAFFUNDER, Alfred. 1801 — 5.7.1875. German Teacher. From 1827 in Erfurt. Educational Inspector (Regierungs-Schulrat, 1835). The Romani book was based on a paper read in 1835 before the Kgl. Akademie gemeinnütziger Wissenschaften in Erfurt. Perhaps by the same: A.G. (Alumnen-Inspektor am Königlichen Joachimsthalischen Gymnasium): Ueber Offenbarung: Eine Untersuchung. Berlin 1827.…
GANANDER, Christfried. Haapajärvi (Ostrobothnia) 21.11.1741 — Rantsila (Ostrobothnia) 17.2.1790. Finnish Clergyman, Folklorist and Lexicographer. Son of Rev. Thomas G. (d. 1751) and Helena Hidén. Studies at Turku (magister 1766). Ordained 1763. Worked as curate in Vaasa and Laihia. From 1775 until death vicar of Rantsila in Ostrobothnia. Married 1767 Magdalena Sinius (d.…
CROFTON, Henry Thomas. Preston, Lancashire 23.7.1848 — Berkshire 17.4.1928. British Gipsy Scholar. Born of an Anglo-Irish family, son of General J. F. Crofton and Anne Agnes Addison. Educated at Cheltenham College. Solicitor in Manchester. President of Gypsy Lore Society in 1908-09. Married 1871 Martha Pilling, one son, three daughters. Publications: With…
CAMPUZANO y GONZÁLEZ, Ramón. 18?? — 1???. Spanish Historian, Lexicographer and Publisher. Still active in 1878. Publications: Orijen, usos y costumbres de los Jitanos, y diccionario de su dialecto. 29+199 p. Madrid 1848 (short introduction and the dictionary), 2nd ed. 1851. – Novisimo diccionario de la lengua castellana. 1-2. 1857;…
BORROW, George Henry. East Dereham, Norfolk 5.7.1803 — Lowestoft, Suffolk 26.7.1881. British Author. Son of Thomas B., an army recruiting officer, and Ann Perfrement. Educated in Edinburgh and Norwich, for a while also in Ireland, then studied law, but soon turned to languages and literature. In 1825 first journey to…
BATAILLARD, Paul Théodore. Paris 23.3.1816 — Paris 1.3.1894. French Archivist and Gipsy Scholar. Son of Pierre Charles B. and Agathe Vasse. Studies at Ecole de chartes. In the 1850s in French Indochine. From 1877 Archivist of Faculté de Médécine in Paris. Married 1849 Élisa Waldor (d. 1852, one daughter) and…
WLISLOCKI, Heinrich Adalbert von. Kronstadt (now Braşov) 9.7.1856 — Klosdorf bei Kleinkopisch (now Şona in Translivania) 19.2.1907. Austrian Gypsy Scholar. His father was Polish-Austrian tax collector and mother a German of Transylvania, educated in Kronstadt. In 1875-79 studied at Klausenburg (Cluj-Napoca), mainly Germanic, but also Sanskrit (Brassai). Ph.D. 1879 (diss.…
VALTONEN, Pertti. 1933 — 1999. Finnish Gipsy Scholar. Studies of Indology, etc. at Helsinki. M.A. 1964 and Lic.Phil. 1968 Helsinki (under Aalto). Then worked as elementary schoolteacher in Imatra in Eastern Finland. His planned Ph.D. dissertation about Indo-Aryan elements in Finnish Romani was never completed, but the manuscript was left…