Project 5: Get Involved
Goal 2: Read Difficult Handwriting
Goal 2: Improve your ability to read difficult handwriting. Vault
Hard-to-read handwriting is a fact of life for older records. Being able to better read it will help you make more progress with original research as well indexing records.
Choices
ALearn the basics of deciphering handwriting.
Summary
- Handwriting is unique to each person, and different regions often used different types of script.
- Compare difficult-to-read words to other letters and words in the document.
- Consulting others for help is also an effective strategy when you're at an impasse.
- Basics: Study these articles to learn basic skills that help you with handwritten records.
FS—United States Handwriting
AR—Howell To Reed Difficult Handrighting - 2011 - Here are examples of alphabet letters as sometimes written in earlier U.S. records.
Old Handwriting - More: Get a quick reference for interpreting handwritten letters in various languages.
FS—Handwriting Helps - Learn what to do when you have difficulty reading handwriting on a record.
5 Steps to Take When Your Ancestor's Name is Unreadable - Here are some additional tips for reading documents with difficult handwriting.
TH—Reading and Understanding Old Documents and Handwriting - 2019
LT: Five Tips for Deciphering Old Handwriting
- * Proficient: Write down key learnings from the articles.
B Learn more techniques for difficult handwriting.
Summary
- Reading aloud slowly can help you decipher a document.
- Words were often written phonetically instead of the standardized way we know them now.
- Become familiar with terminology used in old times.
- Here are some useful tips in deciphering difficult handwriting.
RT—Yes! You Can Read That Handwriting! - 2019 - Read these articles to increase your understanding of old handwriting.
FMP—11 Tips for Reading Old Handwriting
AF: Simple Tips for Reading Old Genealogy Documents - 2015 - Use the online tutorials from the British National Archives, for handwriting from 1500-1800.
- Read this article to learn about reading Elizabethan Secretary handwriting.
FS—How do I read Elizabethan secretary hand? - 2024
- * Good: Write down key learnings from the articles. Then find an indexing batch from an older time period and practice your handwriting analysis.
- * Proficient: Same as above, with three older indexing batches.
C (Optional) Get online help with deciphering old or difficult handwriting.
- Get free help with handwriting deciphering from members of the RootsChat forum.
- Explore paleography questions in the Genealogy Stack Exchange.
D Learn about scripts and paleography (the study of old handwriting).
- Go to the Script Tutorial site for Indexers at Brigham Young University.
- To learn more about paleography in general, scroll down and click the link on the left.
- To learn more about paleography for a specific language, scroll down and click a link on the right to choose English, German, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish, or Portuguese.
- Watch this video for tips on using the BYU Script Tutorials.
BYU—BYU Script Tutorials—36:16 - 2022
