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Help with Old Handwriting:

Sooner or later, you will probably be doing some research in original records which were written several centuries ago. This can be difficult because handwriting styles of the past often differed greatly from the writing we see today.

The following sites all include information which may help you to decipher old handwriting. They are listed in no particular order.

If you have others links which you think should be listed here, please contact the list administrator (see e-mail address below). New additions of particular interest would be those which are specific to languages other than English (eg. French, German, Dutch, etc.) Most of the sites below are about handwriting in English records.

~ http://www.amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/oldhand.html -- Deciphering Old Handwriting. Gives examples.

~ http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/oldalpha.htm -- Examples of Letters of the 17th Century found in Parish Registers. Discusses only capital letters but gives several examples of each one.

~ http://www.catholic-history.org.uk/nwchs/secretary_hand_script.htm Gives an example of all the letters of the alphabet in what is known as Secretary Hand. This style of handwriting was in common use in England in the 16th and 17th centuries but later dropped out of use.

For help in deciphering the handwriting of the 16th,17th and 18th centuries, there is a booklet by Alf Ison called A Secretary Hand ABC Book. It was published in 1990 by Berkshire Books (Wheaton Publishers Ltd.), Exeter, Devon, England.

~ http://www.cyndislist.com/handwrit.htm -- there is a Handwriting & Script section on Cyndi's List. Click on the Category Index there. Includes General Resource Sites and also Locality Specific info.

~ http://www.genealogia.fi/faq/faq031e.htm -- Old Handwriting Styles. Includes sections on handwriting from 16th to 19th centuries. Discussion of capital and lower case letters as well as letter combinations during specific time periods. Gives examples.

~ http://www.iltrails.org/handwritingA-T.html & http://www.iltrails.org/handwritingU-Z.html illustrate "the more common design variations  in 'olde tyme' handwriting" with several examples of most letters.

~ http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dave_tylcoat/handwrit.htm Early English Handwriting. Includes photos of actual documents of the mid-1500's to early 1600's.

~ http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/lessons.html An online course of English Handwriting, 1500-1700. Contains twenty-eight lessons of increasing difficulty. Each lesson is based upon a photo of an historical piece of text. The home page of this same website (at: http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/index.html) has links to other related information such as an historical introduction, early modern handwriting/alphabets, transcription conventions, and dating & descriptions of various handwriting styles.

~ http://www.scan.org.uk/researchrtools/handwriting/scottishhandwriting.htm This site contains details on Scottish handwriting such as tips and instructions on reading Scottish handwriting and a one hour tutorial on interpreting the handwriting. Includes many handwriting samples and a coaching manual.

~ http://www.genealogienetz.de/misc/scripts.html Old German handwritten scripts. Includes samples of handwriting, also an option to download programs and fonts for learning this type of script.

~ http://journal-provision.hypermart.net/Gothic/translation.html Offers translation of German Gothic handwriting for a fee. Including this site here does not imply an endorsement of this service, merely that it is available if you want to use it.

~ trans@e-transcriptum.net This is a translation site which works as follows. Make a copy of the relevant records, preferably with a digital camera.  If possible, but not vital, enhance the result, and send it as an attachment to the above e-mail address.  Make sure to mention the original language of the document as well as the language into which it has to be translated. Note that this service is done by a voluntary organization so please be patient -- it may take a while.

~ Mailing Lists: There are various mailing lists concerned with translations and word origins which may also be of help in deciphering handwriting. Some of these lists are: LATIN-WORDS (deciphering/interpreting Latin documents), OLD-ENGLISH (deciphering/interpreting old English documents), OLD-FRENCH (deciphering/interpreting French documents), OLD-GERMAN (deciphering/interpreting German documents), OLD-WORDS (old words, phrases, names, abbreviations, and antique jargon useful to genealogy). If you're interested in joining any of these mailings lists, you'll find instructions on how to subscribe at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_trans.html. Once there, click on the name of the list you're interested in.

Tips and techniques which may also help:

* If you are reading records from microfilm, place a sheet of coloured acetate or paper over the projected image. This usually makes the print stand out more clearly, especially if it's faded, but worth a try if things aren't clear for whatever reason.

* If particular letters have you stymied, look for them in a word or name you can decipher. If it's an entire word that's unreadable, see if it appears in other entries which might give a clue.

* Most records have information arranged in a set pattern which is repeated almost identically in other entries. Once you learn what the pattern is, reading the text will be easier, no matter what language it's in.

* If the material is written in a language other than your own, make sure you know some key words of vocabulary, eg. use a dictionary or a genealogical word list such as the ones on the LDS site at: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/RG/frameset_rhelps.asp. For example, the listings for France and Germany both include genealogical word lists.

* Become familiar with the various forms of abbreviation that are frequently found in old records. Here are just two examples of many. The tilde (~) written over a letter indicates that it should be a double letter. Also, the months of September through December were sometimes abbreviated as follows: 7ber (September), 8ber (October), 9ber (November), and 10ber or Xber (December).

* Have printed sheets of handwriting and letter samples with you when you are researching. The examples on those sheets may help you with unreadable portions of the records.

* Some researchers find that going backwards through the records works for them. That is, they start at a later time period and work backwards to the desired dates. The handwriting is usually -- but not always -- more readable in later dates so you can have some success right away and then can be ready to deal with the harder-to-read writing of earlier time periods.

* Photocopy the unreadable material, then experiment with enlarging a photocopied image to various sizes. This may make things clearer. Or, if possible, scan it and then manipulate the image in your computer imaging program. This will hopefully make the writing more readable. Changing it into a negative image may also help (ie. white print on a dark background.)

* If all else fails, ask other researchers what they think the unreadable word or letter is. Usually, they are only too happy to help in this way and, often, they can successfully figure out mysteries which have completely puzzled you.

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