DECIPHERING OLD HANDWRITING Village Genealogy Society – May 1, 2014 HISTORY Ability to write was considered beneath a gentleman’s dignity until mid 16 th century. Writing was left to scribes, secretaries or cloistered priests; many developed their own “shorthand” and copybooks. Before 1650, Latin was official court & church language; writing was based on abbreviations of Latin words and phrases. Handwriting in American Colonial period (1600s-1700s) was influenced by standards of writing in Europe. CHALLENGES FOR THE RESEARCHER Writer’s Purpose ( how “user friendly” is the content ?) Legal : experienced writers but uses more decorative script; includes technical terms and abbreviations (court records, land grants, deeds) Ecumenical / Civil : trained writers but content may depend on what writer heard/understood; more names and spelling variations (church records, census records, tax records, land surveys) Wills : could be written by testator or his scribe (secretary, family member, neighbor); names/spelling depends on what writer heard; many commonly used phrases Personal : least formal and may be hardest to decipher (letters, journals, bibles, account books) Writer’s Style ( how “user friendly” is the lettering ?) Writing style of scribes and teachers in early America reflects their national backgrounds (English, German, Dutch, Italian, French, etc) . N ewer generations learned to write by copying their teacher’s style (basic or with calligraphy flourishes). Slant of letters differ for right- or left-handed writers. Availability and quality of writing tools affected results. Ink / Paper / Storage / Pen (“hardware” problems) Old inks made of organic materials, carbon black (soot), iron based – each type had drawbacks which has affected legibility. Paper imported from Europe through about 1750; most had high rag content which has helped documents survive. Storage can be source of unexpected lines/spots researcher has to work around (rolled versus folded; water spots, sun faded, insect droppings, compromised edges, how often handled, etc). Early writing was done with quill (feathers). Shape of pen tip evolved from unformed to square to sharpened point; sharp tip provided precision and made it easier write lower case letters or in small spaces. If both sides of paper were written on, you have to work around “bleed through” words
Evolution of Dates & Numbers Gregorian calendar replaced Julian in 16 th century Europe but England did not adopt until 1752. Months in old style calendar were numbered differently than those in new style calendar (for example, September was 7 th month in old calendar and 9 th month in new calendar) – so be sure to spell out month for dates prior to 1752 to avoid confusion. Dates prior to 1752 should be written to reflect date in both old & new style: July 7, 1701/02 . Roman numerals often used “j” as the last “ i ” in a sequence (iij = 3) or used four “ i ”s for 4 and 9 (iiij = 4 viiii = 9) . Arabic numerals developed later; current day numbers resembled other numbers in older documents . Some Arabic numerals might look like alphabet letters or be written overlapping each other. Evolution of Alphabets Lettering differs by language (English, German, French, etc). Letters are written within 4 imaginary lines: ascender (portion of letter goes above midline), midline, baseline, descender line (portion of letter goes below midline). Ascending letters: b, d, f, h, k, l, t Descending letters: g, p, q, x, y, z Some letters interchangeable in older documents: i , j and y, u, v A stroke on either an ascender or descender is one of the signs used to indicate an abbreviation. Some older documents use double letters to represent a capital letter. “S” is the most confusing letter and first letter of a double “s” looks like an “f” . Vowels can be most confusing letters. Abbreviations & Contractions Abbreviations might appear as an extra stroke or as a superscript. Solve by context or writer’s patterns Although some abbreviations are common throughout documents, scribes often had their own personal system of abbreviations Punctuation and Spelling Punctuation was seldom used; commas, colons, semi-colons and hyphens/dashes were used haphazardly. Spelling was unsystematic until the 19 th century; words were often spelled by the way they sounded. Many older words had an extra “e” added to the ending and the letters “ie” may have been used instead of a “y” . Vowels were often interchanged and sometimes two or more words were run together – or, conversely a single word may have been written in two parts. 2
TIPS FOR READING OLD HANDWRITING • PATIENCE & PRACTICE • If you are just learning this skill, start with census records of the 19 th century and work backward as you gain confidence • Whenever possible, make an enlarged photocopy of the document so that you can read it at leisure and reduce risk of compromising the original. • If you are reading a document on microfilm reader, place a piece of paper under the image and move the paper up and down • Don’t be too proud to use a magnifying glass! • Know the general purpose of the document. This will provide some clues for abbreviations or obscure language. Keep a list of common abbreviations. • Start by looking for dates, which are usually present in genealogical documents. Then use the letters in the month, day of the week, etc to help determine the writer’s style and eccentricities of lettering for that time period. • Look for ascending and descending features of the letters to help identify consonants. • Read through the entire document one or more times without worrying about pieces you can’t read. • Focus on the first and last letter of each word; often, your mind will “fill” in the blanks almost unconsciously. • If vowels are difficult, try the “Let Your Eyes Do the Walking” technique and read by focusing only on the consonants • If scanned document has very faded lettering, try converting to a negative image (black background, white writing) • Use Indexes with caution; for example, since “ i ” and “j” were interchangeable, the name “Jones” may appear in the “ I ” section • PRACTICE & PATIENCE TIPS FOR TRANSCRIBING OLD HANDWRITING Document the source, type of document and name of transcriber Write/type exactly as document is written; include abbreviations, capitalization, punctuation, original spellings and additions to the margin exactly as they appear in the original. If you want to include your interpretation or explanation, put those comments within brackets [ ] The long “S” can be modernized as a regular “s”. The letters “ff” meant a capital “F” and can be transcribed either as a capital letter or as “ff” Three ellipsis … are recommended to indicate the omission of letters or words or if dark ink spots cove r up the handwriting or you can insert the word [illegible] or [?] in brackets if original is difficult to read Put in a blank line (_____) for any words you are not sure of. If you make a guess, put your interpretation in brackets [ ] . Watch for repeated words or phrases; this may help you go back to fill in the blanks Note when words appear to be scratched out and re-written Many researchers will match lines of transcription with lines of document or will number the lines to indicate where each line in the original began 3
RESOURCES 1. Books (all of these are currently listed on Amazon.com) Reading Early American Handwriting by Rip Sperry Understanding Colonial Handwriting by Harriet Stryker-Rodda The Handwriting of American Records For A Period of 300 Years by E. Kay Kirkham Discovering Old Handwriting by John Barrett 2. Free Online Tutorials • BYU interactive tutorial: https://script.byu.edu • Tutorials by Nationality: www.familysearch.org Select “Learning Center” and type “handwriting” into the search bar • Ancestry.com has a short online tutorial for old handwriting. Select “Learning Center” and “Help FAQs” – type “handwriting” into the search bar. Note that you can pull up a sample alphabet in old handwriting while reviewing census documents • www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/quick_reference.htm • http://amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/oldhand.html • Antique words found in old wills & documents: www.freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~walkersj/glossary.htm • Example Old English alphabet: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genepool/oldalpha.htm • Online course for English Handwriting 1500-1700: www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc 4
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