Reading Early American Handwriting

Rating:
Summary: American handwriting guidebook
Review: "If you have ever spent time trying to decipher early American documents, you know the problems... This [book] is highly recommended for those who will be working with handwritten documents from the 16th-19th century." (Ohioana Quarterly, Fall 1998, p. 223)

Rating:
Summary: Terrific resource on a difficult subject
Review: A serious genealogist does not depend on published versions of records but goes directly to the originals at the courthouse or the archives, and in doing this, he runs immediately into a sometimes startling realization: People in previous centuries often wrote things in a handwriting style that differs markedly from that used today. Generally, the farther back in time one goes, the more difficult reading original documents is likely to be. Kip Sperry (who is Certified, Accredited, and a Fellow of three national genealogical societies, as well as an experienced teacher) has addressed this problem by bringing together in this book a wide variety of examples of penmanship for the reader to practice on. However, he limits himself to only early American handwriting in English, so one will find only limited assistance here in deciphering colonial Louisiana records in French and Spanish (which is of particular interest to me, unfortunately). An introductory chapter outlines the history of writing implements themselves, followed by an overview of the styles of penmanship that were taught in the early days of this country. Then he establishes guidelines for reading old documents, and on using context to puzzle out problem words, and also notes the limitations of reading them on microfilm. He describes the challenges of spelling variation, antique abbreviation and contraction, and idiosyncratic spelling and punctuation. Other chapters consider in detail the legal terminology one is likely to encounter, the forms that Arabic and Roman numerals are apt to take, and the effects of the 18th century calendar change. Four sample alphabets (with many variations in each) are reproduced from historical sources. And this first section of the book is capped by an extremely thorough 28-page bibliography covering paleography itself and also the problems encountered in reading handwriting of many times and places. The latter two-thirds of the book consists of a wealth of reproduced documents of every type and from every part of colonial America, accompanied by a transcript on the facing page, for easy comparison. Here one will find Massachusetts baptisms, Richard Henry Lee's Virginia Resolves, wills from colonial New York, personal correspondence from the 17th century Winthrop family, and public petitions subscribed with arrays of widely differing signatures. I have only two minor quibbles: The lack of an index and the inclusion of a chapter on genealogical resources on the Internet (which, unlike the rest of the book, is very general, and is likely to go out of date rather quickly). This is otherwise an extremely well-informed work and should be considered for any researcher's reference shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Don't try certification without it !
Review: Kip Sperry has created a text which is beneficial for both amateur and seasoned genealogist alike. In fact, this book could easily be a required source for those attempting to get their certification from the Board for Certification of Genealogists, because he gives such good guidelines for transcibing documents. Sperry writes in an easy and informative way as he explains the difficulties of reading and transcribing early Rnglish and American documents. A must for any serious genealogist or historian.