family history club
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Family History Club. Palaeography for family historians Tips and Sources of Information. Family History Club Palaeography session. Study of handwriting Genealogists may need to read a number of different types of document while researching their family tree: Wills Inventories - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Family History Club
Palaeography for family historians
Tips and Sources of Information
Family History ClubPalaeography session• Study of handwriting• Genealogists may need to read a number
of different types of document while researching their family tree:– Wills– Inventories– Census records– Land agreements – indentures– Diaries, letters, notes etc
A few tips:
• Write down your transcription as you go along – start a new line where the scribe does – it will be easier to read again and compare later
• If you are really stuck on a word have a look at the words around it for use of the same letters
• Look at alphabet guides for the period of the document you are looking at – they really help!
• If you are stuck it’s often useful to go away and come back to it in a while – or get someone else to have a look.
A few common problems
• Shortened words – if you notice a word has a line above it, it may have been shortened by the scribe e.g:
• Lower case “c”’s and “r”’s can be indistinguishable and “i”’s, “n”’s “m”s, “u”s” and “w”’s often just appear as single lines
Web sites • The National Archives palaeography guide• http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/
• Deciphering Old Handwriting - From a genealogy course taught by Sabina J. Murray• http://www.amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/oldhand
• Early English Handwriting• http://www.btinternet.com/~tylcoat/handwrit.htm
• An introduction to palaeography• http://paleo.anglo-norman.org/
• Palaeography – Reading early writing• http://www.jaydax.co.uk/genlinks/palaeography.html
• Some notes on Medieval English Genealogy• (Scroll down to: Links and bibliography for handwriting and language)• http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/guide/hand.shtml
• Glossary of Latin words• http://comp.uark.edu/~mreynold/recint1.htm
• Scottish handwriting.com• http://www.scottishhandwriting.com/content/
• Historical auxiliary sciences – palaeography• http://www.vl-ghw.lmu.de/palaeographie_en.html
• Medieval handwriting• http://www.medievalwriting.50megs.com/
• 1891 London census transcription – handwriting analysis• http://www.census1891.com/hand.htm