Question on handwriting

[Peggy]

Hi,

I'm not beginning, but I am stuck; and this seems a "beginner" question.

Does a list exist anywhere of capital letters most likely to be confused with other capital letters? I'm trying to find various relatives on census indices. If a person is not indexed under any logical variant with the same initial letter, it would be helpful to know which initial letters to try next. IYSWIM. For example, I wouldn't have thought to try "T" for "S" until I got that advice here.

If I'm sure about the county, I can look at the long list of Marys or Edwards born around the right time, hunting for a surname of the same size/shape. But many of mine popped around among at least 3 counties, and some occasionally took off for the bright gaslights of the London area.

Any helpful tips or web sites?

Peggy

[Jo Simpsons]

There is a page that offers some good help on British- Genealogy.com.

"Techniques to Read Difficult writting in a Census"
http://www.british-genealogy.com/resources/census/writing.html

Jo:)

[Geoffers]

A lot depends on the period of time, and thus the form of script used. Could you narrow it down a bit?

Geoffers

[Peggy]

Thanks, Jo. A useful page, but most useful once one is looking at the page. For searching an index, I'm looking for a list of capitalized letters and the most common misreadings of them.

Geoffers, I can't narrow it down any more, except by breaking it down into individual census years. Does the script change that much over the years of the census?

Peggy

[Geoffers]

Geoffers, I can't narrow it down any more, except by breaking it down into individual census years. Does the script change that much over the years of the census?
No, the script remains a similar form of italic over the 19th century. Just narrowing it down to then helps. I'm just off to coach the local youngsters in the noble game of Cricket. When I get back, if no one else has repsonded, I'll type up a list of letters that can easily be mistaken.

Geoffers

[Geoffers]

Back home. collapsed in front of the computer - some of the easily mistaken letters that spring to mind are::

'As' and sometimes 'Ar' can be confused as Ch
'Ag' can be misread as 'Cl'
'Cl' - can be read as 'A'

(remember that capital A was usually written in a similar manner to the modern lower case 'a').

D - sometimes misread as P
F - misread as J, T
G - misread as Cr, Ci
H - misread as K
J - misread as S, T
K - misread as H

continued.....

[Geoffers]

part 2.....

L - occasionally misread as S
P - misread as D
R - occasionally misread as P
S - misread as T and ocasionally L
T - misread as F, J, S
U - occasionally misread as V

lower case 's' is very often misread as 'f', especially when there is a double 's'.
lower case 't' is often not crossed and misread as lower case 'l'.

Some others may come to mind, I'll add them if they do.

Geoffers

[Judy M]

Don't forget J & I ....I find most problems in peoples initials where there are no other letters to guide your guesses.

I also had a horrid time transcribing some Church Wardens accounts...Trying to differentiate between "Senior" & "Lemon". In some census transciptions for the area, I noticed the same issue so that wasn't a guide. (I'm pretty sure they were all "Lemon")
Enough to make you tear your hair out!

Those little superscripts can be a trap also Rev(d)

[Peggy]

Hi Geoffers,

Thank you!! Just what I was looking for!

Hope the cricket coaching went well.

Peggy

[Geoffers]

Glad to help Peggy.
Please don't take it as an exhaustive list, there are many local variations. Ask again if you get stuck.

As I'm sure you appreciate (but in case any beginners reading this don't), a lot can be gained by reading through a complete census enumerator's book - or at least several pages, it's a case of getting used to the enumerator's handwriting.

Geoffers

[Peggy]

Hi Geoffers,

I do indeed see the great advantage of getting familiar with the enumerator's writing.

But in this case, I'm not looking at the handwriting. Someone else has done that, and mistranscribed my rellies surnames. Not knowing where they were living on the date, I want to figure out the best ways to search the index for them. Thanks to a tip from Jo, I found one of my Simpsons as a Timpson. But others remain lost, as do rellies with other surnames.

Best,

Peggy

[Jo Simpsons]

Hi Peggy,

some times just another pair of eyes work!
Are you looking on Ancestry? If it is, sometimes it's better to put in less info. You may get some help if you list the names you are looking for. You never know.
Jo :)

[Geoffers]

I found one of my Simpsons as a Timpson. But others remain lost, as do rellies with other surnames.
In that case, another error I've encountered is, if the 'i' isn't dotted, then the indexer may have recorded 'Sun' instead of 'Sim' - or 'Tun' instead of 'Tim'. In Norfolk, the names Tim(p)son and Sim(p)son occur as does the name Stim(p)son - whilst they're not names I am researching and so cannot say for sure, I have my suspicions that occasionally a Simpson is recorded as Stimpson, and vice versa.

Geoffers
Charlbury, Oxfordshire