palaeography (old handwriting) tutorial

[Davran]

Not quite sure where to post this, but I found this link on another forum. Looks as though it should be useful - I haven't gone into it in depth.

http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/default.htm

[v.wells]

I read the first one and only understood about 6 words! Very artistic! Then my eyes went funny when I looked at some of the other ones. Too bad they don't have a 19 c. tutorial and even 20 c. would be good!:D

[bwarnerok]

I went through several of those tutorials and they did help me, but they also made me crazy and half blind!

My goal now is to just pick out the names and places mentioned in the wills and not sweat the small stuff.

At first I was downloading and printing my wills out. Even bought a huge magnifying glass and couldn't make heads or tails (and when they start with the Latin. forget it!!). Now I find the easiest way is to just leave it on the puter in acrobat and blow it up to about 125%. THen I tilt my head to the left, then the right, blink 3 times and grasp at straws.

No problems really except for a will in 1847. Whoever was doing the handwriting that day scored very low on pensmanship. It went from lovely artisitic perfection into a 21st century 8 year old with no Ritalin! Sad part was.. I could read it.

betsy

[v.wells]

I went through several of those tutorials and they did help me, but they also made me crazy and half blind!

My goal now is to just pick out the names and places mentioned in the wills and not sweat the small stuff.

At first I was downloading and printing my wills out. Even bought a huge magnifying glass and couldn't make heads or tails (and when they start with the Latin. forget it!!). Now I find the easiest way is to just leave it on the puter in acrobat and blow it up to about 125%. THen I tilt my head to the left, then the right, blink 3 times and grasp at straws.

No problems really except for a will in 1847. Whoever was doing the handwriting that day scored very low on pensmanship. It went from lovely artisitic perfection into a 21st century 8 year old with no Ritalin! Sad part was.. I could read it.

betsy

Betsy, I have pneumonia at the moment, but I just roared with laughter at your reply! Then I started coughing. I needed both! |hug|

Vanessa

[Geoffers]

There is a knack to reading older forms of handwriting - it becomes easier with practice so I would urge everyone to have a go. Some forms of Seretary Hand from the 16th century are works of art and I still get a thrill reading documents from this period. Then there is the change through to transitional italic and later handwriting which becomes more like that of today.

If you do get stuck, please ask - if you can, include a link to an image so that we can all have a look and learn, especially beginners.

After all, if you are going to carry out genuine research of original documents, you will need to at least have a stab at other forms of handwriting.