1: Get Organized   2: Learn the Basics   3: Form a Strategy   4: Search Ancestry Records (AN)   5: Search Collections (AN)   6: Analyze Search Results (AN)   7: Develop Search Skills   8: Solve Problems   9: Family History Trip   10: Descendants   11: Reading Handwriting   AC Project 4           Translation Tips    Music   Print Friendly and PDF   











Project 4: Research


Goal 11: Reading Difficult Handrwiting



Goal 11: 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
  1. 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

  2. Here are examples of alphabet letters as sometimes written in earlier U.S. records.

    Old Handwriting

  3. More: Get a quick reference for interpreting handwritten letters in various languages.

    FS—Handwriting Helps

  4. Learn what to do when you have difficulty reading handwriting on a record.

    5 Steps to Take When Your Ancestor's Name is Unreadable

  5. 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

Exercises



B Learn more techniques for difficult handwriting.


Summary
  1. Here are some useful tips in deciphering difficult handwriting.

    RT—Yes! You Can Read That Handwriting! - 2019

  2. 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

  3. Use the online tutorials from the British National Archives, for handwriting from 1500-1800.
  4. Read this article to learn about reading Elizabethan Secretary handwriting.

    FS—How do I read Elizabethan secretary hand? - 2024
Exercises



C (Optional) Get online help with deciphering old or difficult handwriting.


  1. Get free help with handwriting deciphering from members of the RootsChat forum.
  2. Explore paleography questions in the Genealogy Stack Exchange.

D Learn about scripts and paleography (the study of old handwriting).


  1. Go to the Script Tutorial site for Indexers at Brigham Young University.
  2. To learn more about paleography in general, scroll down and click the link on the left.
  3. 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.
  4. Watch this video for tips on using the BYU Script Tutorials.

    BYU—BYU Script Tutorials—36:16 - 2022