CLPEX Chat Board

So, I've been reading Cummins and Midlo's Finger Prints, Palms, and Soles (which is a great read, by the way!!!) and I began wondering about the history of fingerprints as used for identificaiton purposes. If it was true that fingerprints were left on contracts as a means of identification, then surely there was a time when a contract was disputed and someone had to look at the fingerprints to make sure the person that 'stamped' it was different than the person disputing it, right? Where would you find a record of this disputed fingerprint record being examined...in an ancient police department, magistrate's office, emperor's records? Has there ever been a documented fingerprint examination for this purpose, historically? Where would one need to begin a search in order to find this? I'm not looking at flying over to Japan or China to look through documents but I thought this could at least spark some ideas as to where one could look for this type of information. Or perhaps I'm just looking in to this way to much.

I just saw that this was my hundredth post...huh.

I'm guessing that if there was ever someone denying their fingerprint, it was decided by simply looking at it, rather than any formal process. But those situations would likely be rare. The impression of a body part, in the mindset of primitive peoples, would be to transfer a part of oneself and would create an unbreakable bond between the impression and the individual that they wouldn't think to dispute. But if I was looking for a case, I'd look to India under the Raj where fingerprints were also used on contracts. Did Herschel have any stories? I don't think so. He talks about using fingerprint for contracts and jail records. But it sounds like comparison was not a structured process and more simply apparent likeness, since for him, they were all inked impressions, not latents, and he had the full print to work with. But just because he doesn't talk about specific denial of fingerprints doesn't mean it never happened. He related falsifications of seals before fingerprints were in use and a man cutting off his finger tips in an attempt to deny a document.

http://galton.org/fingerprints/books/he ... origin.pdf

You could take a look at :
http://clpex.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=6

If you want to read some more about the use of fingerprints before Herschel and Faulds and ... you might want to read Berthold Laufer : "History of the Finger-Print system" (1912) or Heindl : "Daktyloskopie" (1927 - in German)

All the best,

Gerrit

Josher -

I have found similar conclusions as Gerald in all of my reading of fingerprint history. Fingerprints in clay seals of important documents started appearing in China around the 3rd century BC. Many artifacts found in China from the 5th century AD and forward show fingerprints being left on legal documents as means of signatures. However, whether or not any actual comparison was ever done is unknown. Perhaps they used thumbprints as signatures for people who did not know how to write. One reading stated that the reason Herschel started collecting prints on contracts with natives in India was because he had learned of their belief that handprints carried a piece of the person's being, or soul. The writer theorized that Hershcel's initial intent was simply to intimidate the natives into keeping the contract, and only later did he realize the potential for fingerprint uniqueness. The debate rages as to exactly when fingerprints started being collected on documents AND compared for identification in disputes.

But, you're welcome to try to figure this out. I'd certainly be curious to know the answer. I imagine you would have to research some of the earliest known people or places to use prints on documents? Emporer Ts-In-She was reportedly the first Emporer in China to impress his print into the clay seal of his documents. There was a Chinese historian named Kia Kung-Yen who in 650 AD described the ancinet practice of creating identical notches on wooden tablets of contracts for identification, and compared it to "the same as that of fingerprints at present time." The book "Quantitative-Qualitative Friction Ridge Analysis" by Ashbaugh (another good read) states on p15 "During 1975 in Yuen Meng County in China, bamboo slips were found describing a trial reported to have taken place during the Qin dynasty (300 B.C.) During a theft trial handprints were submitted as evidence." It would be interesting to know if those submitted handprints were actually compared to the suspect.

And I'm sure there are for more locations than just China that have ancient legal documents with fingerprints on them. China is the one that comes up most frequently in my training reading, I promise I'm not biased towards them, ha. Hopefully that will give you a few places to start, if you decide to do some research. Good luck!

Thanks for the replies. I did get a sense that historic man believed that FP were a part of themselves and by leaving a part of oneself on a document meant it was binding, at the cost of their life, there wouldn't be many falsificaitons of documents. I know that the task of searching for the first comparison would be monumental and while I'm still interested in the outcome, I don't think I'll be making it a Ph.D. project. I will definitely be on the lookout for places/articles that mention this, and I appreciate the leads that have already been posted. I found a re-print of the 1912 article in a 2000 edition of the SCAFO publicaiton http://www.scafo.org/The_Print/THE_PRIN ... SUE_02.pdf but there are no images in the article. I did take German in high school and college, but that was a long time ago so I may try and see if I can come up with a copy of the Heindl article and do some translating.

I think this may be a labor of love and it will be something that I work on throughout my career as an LPE. A former colleague of mine is a collector of all things fingerprints in America. He has the original Boy Scouts Fingerprint Merit Badge handout as well as pre-60's fingerprint manuals from several US police departments; it took him a career to gather these things so I think I'll be doing the same with this.

Thanks again and if anyone else has some insight, please post.