The challenge of reading and interpreting handwritten, historical documents often comes as a surprise to new researchers, Even experienced researchers can sometimes find deciphering old handwriting to be a difficult and time-consuming task. Disagree? Try your hand at the British National Archive's online ducking game and you'll quickly see just how challenging reading old handwriting can be!
While illegible handwriting may appear in documents from all time periods, older records can also present additional difficulties, including writing styles and conventions different from those in use today. Questions often arise during transcription concerning the formation of specific characters, the meaning of particular abbreviations, or the spelling or interpretation of certain words. In other words, reading and transcribing old documents is a skill that takes time, practice, and a lot of patience.
Try the following 10 tips to get started reading and properly interpreting old handwritten records.
Approach each document you read with an open mind, being careful not to make assumptions based on what you expect to see. Read slowly through the entire document, ensuring that the words make sense as you go. If there are sections you are unsure of, make a note rather than guessing at this point. It's easier to make sense of the hard-to-read parts after you've made at least a first pass through the entire record, using the context of the document and the rest of the wording to guide you. Many great genealogical clues have been overlooked based on incorrect assumptions and misinterpreted words.
Study the author's handwriting to identify their individual writing style and pinpoint idiosyncrasies. Use letters or letter combinations from words in the document that you can read to piece together the letters in the words you are having trouble with. I often begin by looking for dates, which are present in many genealogical documents. Then use the letters in the month, day of the week, etc. to help determine the writer's individual handwriting style. In a census record, look for words that appear over and over (such as place names), or families that you can easily identify (even if they are not your ancestors).
Be aware! Some documents may include the handwriting of multiple individuals—including the signature
Expect that spelling in older documents may vary from modern standards, even within the same document. Words may be spelled phonetically, or letters may have been omitted in haste. Place names and personal names were especially prone to inconsistent spelling; familiarize yourself with names from the locality through study of census records and other name lists, historical maps and atlases, and other records from the time period that the document was created.
Capitalization may have been used randomly, or to emphasize words that the writer felt were important (similar to how we might use bold or italicized text today). Punctuation may not follow modern conventions, or be utilized infrequently.
An individual letter may be written differently depending upon its position within a particular word, or the other letters it is connected to. Letters appearing at the end of a word may include an extra tail, upstroke or downstroke. The letter used to begin a word may include an extra flourish or additional detail, than the same letter appearing in other positions. Capital letters often have different forms than lowercase letters, but not always.
If you are working with multiple documents by the same author or scribe (such as deed records), you may want to consider creating an alphabet chart with examples of each letter style.
Deeds, wills, marriage licenses, and many other record types often use standard words and phrases. Learning the terminology appropriate to different types of records can help you to better recognize words and phrases despite illegible handwriting, or even a different language.
Context also comes into play with word choice and placement. An unknown word—especially if repeated in more than one place—can sometimes be deciphered using the context of the surrounding words, phrases, and sentence structure. Certain words and abbreviations—especially medical and legal terminology—may be specific to the era and locality in which they were written. Old dictionaries and glossaries of archaic legal and medical terms can be consulted online for assistance.
Letters such as m, n, u, j, i, r, v, w, and sometimes e and c, may appear in the middle of a word as an indecipherable series of up and down strokes, or "minims." To decipher these squiggles count the vertical strokes in the word and consider the possible characters this may represent ('i' and 'j' = 1 minim; 'u,' 'v' and 'n' = 2 minims; and 'm' and 'w' = 3 minims), taking into account any identifiable letters in the word and surrounding context.
The letter 'i' will be generally dotted, but not always, and this dot may be hard to distinguish from an artifact when viewing a photocopy, microfilm or digital copy.
A good, old-fashioned magnifying glass is a good place to start, especially when dealing with paper records. If the document is digital, download the highest resolution copy available and use available tools in your image viewer or software to zoom in on detail or increase contrast to help pick up subtle pen strokes not easily visible to the naked eye.
Numerous free reading old handwriting tutorials can be found online to help you get started reading older documents, including instruction on letter and number formation, commonly used abbreviations and spellings, and even tips for making out faded, smudged or sloppy text. Many are accompanied by examples of digitized documents.
As you work to accurately identify the language used in your document, it can be helpful to create a full transcription at the same time—exactly as it is written, misspellings, missing punctuation, and all. This not only assists in using context to decipher the old script, as discussed previously, but will also help to keep you from making assumptions that might trip you up in your research at a later date.
The best way to become proficient at reading old handwriting is to do it a lot. Gather together those document copies you have sitting in file cabinets or boxes and plan to spend some time transcribing them in their entirety. Start with the most recent documents as they will be more familiar, both in form and vocabulary, and then work your way backward in time. Changes in writing style and terminology will be introduced gradually, making it easier to learn as you go.
As a side benefit of practicing on your own previously discovered documents, you will hopefully find new clues that were originally overlooked because the text was too hard to read!
While illegible handwriting may appear in documents from all time periods, older records can also present additional difficulties, including writing styles and conventions different from those in use today. Questions often arise during transcription concerning the formation of specific characters, the meaning of particular abbreviations, or the spelling or interpretation of certain words. In other words, reading and transcribing old documents is a skill that takes time, practice, and a lot of patience.
Try the following 10 tips to get started reading and properly interpreting old handwritten records.
1. Don't Assume
Approach each document you read with an open mind, being careful not to make assumptions based on what you expect to see. Read slowly through the entire document, ensuring that the words make sense as you go. If there are sections you are unsure of, make a note rather than guessing at this point. It's easier to make sense of the hard-to-read parts after you've made at least a first pass through the entire record, using the context of the document and the rest of the wording to guide you. Many great genealogical clues have been overlooked based on incorrect assumptions and misinterpreted words.
2. Learn the Writer's Style
Study the author's handwriting to identify their individual writing style and pinpoint idiosyncrasies. Use letters or letter combinations from words in the document that you can read to piece together the letters in the words you are having trouble with. I often begin by looking for dates, which are present in many genealogical documents. Then use the letters in the month, day of the week, etc. to help determine the writer's individual handwriting style. In a census record, look for words that appear over and over (such as place names), or families that you can easily identify (even if they are not your ancestors).
Be aware! Some documents may include the handwriting of multiple individuals—including the signature
3. Don't Over-Emphasize Spelling, Capitalization or Punctuation
Expect that spelling in older documents may vary from modern standards, even within the same document. Words may be spelled phonetically, or letters may have been omitted in haste. Place names and personal names were especially prone to inconsistent spelling; familiarize yourself with names from the locality through study of census records and other name lists, historical maps and atlases, and other records from the time period that the document was created.
Capitalization may have been used randomly, or to emphasize words that the writer felt were important (similar to how we might use bold or italicized text today). Punctuation may not follow modern conventions, or be utilized infrequently.
4. Look at Letter Placement
An individual letter may be written differently depending upon its position within a particular word, or the other letters it is connected to. Letters appearing at the end of a word may include an extra tail, upstroke or downstroke. The letter used to begin a word may include an extra flourish or additional detail, than the same letter appearing in other positions. Capital letters often have different forms than lowercase letters, but not always.
If you are working with multiple documents by the same author or scribe (such as deed records), you may want to consider creating an alphabet chart with examples of each letter style.
5. Consider Context
Deeds, wills, marriage licenses, and many other record types often use standard words and phrases. Learning the terminology appropriate to different types of records can help you to better recognize words and phrases despite illegible handwriting, or even a different language.
Context also comes into play with word choice and placement. An unknown word—especially if repeated in more than one place—can sometimes be deciphered using the context of the surrounding words, phrases, and sentence structure. Certain words and abbreviations—especially medical and legal terminology—may be specific to the era and locality in which they were written. Old dictionaries and glossaries of archaic legal and medical terms can be consulted online for assistance.
6. Count Vertical Strokes
Letters such as m, n, u, j, i, r, v, w, and sometimes e and c, may appear in the middle of a word as an indecipherable series of up and down strokes, or "minims." To decipher these squiggles count the vertical strokes in the word and consider the possible characters this may represent ('i' and 'j' = 1 minim; 'u,' 'v' and 'n' = 2 minims; and 'm' and 'w' = 3 minims), taking into account any identifiable letters in the word and surrounding context.
The letter 'i' will be generally dotted, but not always, and this dot may be hard to distinguish from an artifact when viewing a photocopy, microfilm or digital copy.
7. Utilize Technology
A good, old-fashioned magnifying glass is a good place to start, especially when dealing with paper records. If the document is digital, download the highest resolution copy available and use available tools in your image viewer or software to zoom in on detail or increase contrast to help pick up subtle pen strokes not easily visible to the naked eye.
8. Take Advantage of Online Tutorials
Numerous free reading old handwriting tutorials can be found online to help you get started reading older documents, including instruction on letter and number formation, commonly used abbreviations and spellings, and even tips for making out faded, smudged or sloppy text. Many are accompanied by examples of digitized documents.
9. Write it Down as You Go
As you work to accurately identify the language used in your document, it can be helpful to create a full transcription at the same time—exactly as it is written, misspellings, missing punctuation, and all. This not only assists in using context to decipher the old script, as discussed previously, but will also help to keep you from making assumptions that might trip you up in your research at a later date.
10. Practice, Practice, Practice
The best way to become proficient at reading old handwriting is to do it a lot. Gather together those document copies you have sitting in file cabinets or boxes and plan to spend some time transcribing them in their entirety. Start with the most recent documents as they will be more familiar, both in form and vocabulary, and then work your way backward in time. Changes in writing style and terminology will be introduced gradually, making it easier to learn as you go.
As a side benefit of practicing on your own previously discovered documents, you will hopefully find new clues that were originally overlooked because the text was too hard to read!
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