You Can Read Handwritten Documents! -- First efforts Post #2

 

Note: You can usually click on an image to see an enlarged version. 

You will find that reading handwriting becomes more difficult as you go back in time. I decided to start with a response to a genealogical inquiry handwritten in 1936. There are three main types of handwriting: cursive, print, and D'Nealian. The letter above is an example of cursive. Here is a formal example of cursive handwriting. 

Here is a formal example of a style of print handwriting. 

Here is an example of D'Nealian handwriting.

From these examples, you can see that the reality of handwriting is usually far distant from the standards set by those who teach handwriting. As a genealogist, you will most likely find examples of handwriting on census documents. Beginning in the early 1900s, you will also find that typewritten documents begin to appear more regularly and by mid-century, typed documents dominate record-keeping but you are still confronted with handwritten entries on pre-printed forms. 

Calligraphy is the art of producing decorative handwriting. Here is an example of calligraphic art.

Although there are distinctive examples of the styles of handwriting, the real test is when you try to read actual documents. The following examples are taken from the 1800s before typewritten documents became commonly available.

This first example is from will file from Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It is a good example of excellent and easily readable handwriting. If you can read cursive at all, you should not have any trouble reading these will records. 

The next example is from the same will record when a new clerk took over the handwriting task. 

This example would be a little more challenging but still readable. Here is an increasing challenge from the same county, Anne Arundel County, Maryland in the 1880 U.S. Census. 

An additional challenge from this census document is the over-use of abbreviations. Here is a portion of the above census record.

If you have done any indexing for FamilySearch or any other website, you will know exactly why this example is a problem. As you examine these documents as a researcher, you really begin to appreciate those people who had legible handwriting. 

These are only examples. What is important to begin is to begin doing research in original handwritten records. A good exercise is also to transcribe handwritten letters and other documents from those records you discover in your research. If you look at the zoomed-in example above, here is what I would read from this record:

• Churchhill, Wm [William], Sarah E. Wm T
• James, Thos [Thomas], Loren H.
• Reevis or Reeves Saml. [Samuel] F., Katie A.

It will take further research in other census records to determine if this person was Reevis or Reeves. 

Here is the link to the first post in this series.

Part #1 https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2020/10/you-can-read-handwritten-documents-how.html