5/11/2020 5 Tips for Deciphering Old Handwriting | Legacy Tree Genealogists https://www.legacytree.com/blog/five-tips-deciphering-old-handwriting?fbclid=IwAR3gowtjFJSsyaIDQSkOPD6Wpo0ywtpxjTBLFOn_wehX_Sw1kYs1L… 1/11 Five Tips for Deciphering Old Handwriting POPULAR POSTS 3 Essential Websites for German Family History Research 44 comments Researching Cherokee Ancestry 36 comments Research Pitfalls of Beginning Genealogists 31 comments ScotlandsPeople: Research Tips from a Scot Descendant 24 comments Finding Foundlings: Searching for Abandoned Children in Italy 23 comments 6 Things You Need to Know About the AncestryDNA Ethnicity Update 23 comments How the X-Chromosome Solved a 100-Year-Old Adoption Mystery 22 comments 7 Reasons to Hire a Professional Genealogist 21 comments DNA: Transforming African American Genealogy 20 comments One of the hot topics of debate among parents and educators these days is whether it is necessary for today’s computer-age students to learn cursive handwriting. Given the time investment required, is it important enough to continue to be taught in our public schools? If professional genealogists and historians were to weigh in on the subject, we would vote with a resounding Yes! Historical documents that are fundamental to our nation’s history and laws, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, were written in cursive. And what about handwritten letters from grandpa sent home from the war, or great-grandma’s gingersnap cookie recipe, to say nothing of actual genealogical Like 411 Share 372 Tweet 0 Pinterest 149 1 (800) 818-1476 Contact Us Services Highlights About Press Blog
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5/11/2020 5 Tips for Deciphering Old Handwriting | Legacy Tree Genealogists
One of the hot topics of debate among parents and educatorsthese days is whether it is necessary for today’s computer-agestudents to learn cursive handwriting. Given the time investmentrequired, is it important enough to continue to be taught in ourpublic schools? If professional genealogists and historians wereto weigh in on the subject, we would vote with a resounding Yes!
Historical documents that are fundamental to our nation’s historyand laws, including the Declaration of Independence and theConstitution, were written in cursive. And what about handwrittenletters from grandpa sent home from the war, or great-grandma’sgingersnap cookie recipe, to say nothing of actual genealogical
research in original documents? Some would argue that soonoptical character recognition (OCR) technology will be able totake care of reading and deciphering these records for us, but inthe meantime, we’ve got to do it the old-fashioned way.
Even if you were taught growing up to write with cursivehandwriting, it can still be tricky to read!
Here are five tips to help you tackle those difficult to readhandwritten documents that will inevitably cross your path onyour discovery of your own family history:
1. Read the entire document quickly to get the context. Even ifyou feel like you don’t understand anything on the page, youreyes will start to get familiar with the handwriting, and you willbegin to recognize some words.
2. Write out the alphabet using the scribe’s handwriting. Make acheat sheet of sorts, creating each letter the way the scribe does.One way to do this is to trace the strokes of each letter with yourfinger to get the feel of the way the scribe writes. The lineswhere the scribe begins a letter are often thicker than where hestops, helping you follow the direction the scribe took to makethe letter. If you’re really dedicated to getting the full experience,you can even purchase a historic style dip pen, nib, and inkwellfor only a few dollars online or through a local art shop.
3. Leave blanks for words or letters that you don’t know. As youstart to transcribe the document, write down each word,but don’t spend a lot of time on a word or letter that is giving youtrouble. Use placeholders for the letters you can’t figure out(“st_e”) and move on. Continue to the end of the document andcome back to those spots later when you have seen more of theforms and context of the document.
4. Look for common words or phrases. There are many options.Look for the word “the.” Months of the year are also usually easyto read and contain many letters of the alphabet to compare to.Learn about common phrases used in the type of document youare looking at, such as wills and land deeds. Becoming familiarwith these boilerplate terms and clauses can give you severalwords or phrases with which to compare other words and letters.For example:
Often, the very first line in a will is “In the name of God”
“I give and bequeath to my beloved wife…”
“my last will and testament”
Deeds:
“This indenture made this …[date]” often begins a land
deed.
The words “grantor,” “grantee,” and “appurtenances”
“Know all men by these presents…”
“In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal
this [date]”
“Signed sealed and delivered”
5. Remember that spelling, punctuation, and capitalization werenot standardized until the 19 century. Something that is helpfulto keep in mind when dealing with early American documents isthat spelling, punctuation, and capitalization were not asimportant to early Americans as they are to us today. It wasn’tuntil 1806, when Noah Webster published A CompendiousDictionary of the English Language – the first American lexiconto define spelling – that spelling began to become more uniform,and even then, it took years to catch on. This was largelybecause basic education was not totally compulsory everywherein the United States until all the way in the 1920s. As a result, thefollowing are important considerations:
Words were often spelled phonetically, the way they
sounded. Local accents could also affect the way a word
was spelled; for example, the surname Harrington could
become Arrington. This is even more common when an
ancestor in a record was an immigrant from a non-English-
speaking country. The German surname Schneider may
have become Snyder, Snider, Schnieder, or any number of
other variations.
A person’s name could be spelled several different ways
within the same document.
Punctuation was seldom used, and when it was, it was used
haphazardly. Dashes or equal signs were often used at the
end of a line, after an abbreviation, or to show the word
extended to the next line.
The first word in a sentence may or may not start with a
capital letter; sometimes words in the middle of the
sentence are capitalized. Names were not always
capitalized.
Clerks often used abbreviations, substitutions, and
contractions, even with proper names. For example:
Wm for William, Danl for Daniel, Geo for George
Superscripts were used in the abbreviations such as
Jun or Esq and Dan
substituting “y” for “i”
dyed = died
eyther = either
Catherine = Catheryn
adding e to ends of words
sole = soul
doe = do
sume = sum
Being able to read old handwriting and transcribe the contents ofwills, deeds, vital records, and other period writings are skills thatare important to a genealogist but also to historians and anyonedesiring to make connections with the past. With practice andpatience, the process will become easier, and you too will beable to unlock the mysteries captured inside these preciouspieces of the past.
The experts at Legacy Tree Genealogists can help you read,transcribe, and even translate the documents necessary forlearning more about your ancestors. Contact us today for a freeconsultation.
