1. Tips for Reading Old Handwriting
Katie Quick Derby

2. Paleography
Letters that are written differently
Words that are spelled differently
Abbreviations
Calendar Changes
Latin
Numbers

3. Online Paleography Tutorials
BYU Enhanced Scrip Tutorial:
scrip.byu.edu
Intro to Paleography:
paleo.anglo-norman.org
UK National Archives:
nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography
English Writing 1500-1700: http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/index.
html

7. Books

8. Rule #1: Compare
● Compare and match unknown letters, characters, or
doubtful words in the same document to determine if
they are the same.
● Compare with words on the same page, and then look
on the pages before and after the one in question.
● Compare with letters and words that are familiar to you.

10. Terms
Annoque: And in the year
Appurtenance: Rights and duties attached to land
Banns: Publication of an intended marriage
Base-Born: An illegitimate child
Codicil: An addition or supplement to a will
Enfeoff: Usually found in deeds; the transfer of land, granting of use
Gaol: Jail
Grantee: A buyer of property
Grantor: A seller of property
Hereditament: Property that may be inherited
Holograph: A document written in the author’s hand

11. More Terms
Imprimis: In the first place
Intestate: The condition of dying without having made a valid will
Legacy: A gift of money or personal property left in a will
Liber/Libros: A book or volume
Lis pendens: A pending lawsuit
Messuage: A large house
Metes and Bounds: Land description system
Nee: Born
Nuncupative: An oral will
Relict: Widow of the deceased
Uxor: Wife
Yeoman: A farmer who cultivates his own land

13. Lowercase Letters that Acend
b, d, f, h, k, l, t

14. Lowercase Letters That Decend
g, p, q, x, y, z

15. Numbers
Most numbers are likely to be written in Roman numerals, but
with three interesting differences from the modern approach:
1. They will be written in lowercase rather than uppercase
letters.
2. A single 1 or the last 1 in a series will resemble our modern j.
3. Four (4) and nine (9) are more likely to use four ones rather
than the single 1 of today.

17. Calendar Change
Under the Old Style, or Julian Calendar, the year ran from Lady Day, March
25th through March 24th.
The Calendar Act of 1752 called for the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar
which called for a year starting January 1st
From 1582 to 1752 both styles of Calendar were in use throughout Europe. So
items Dated between Jan 1st and March 25th were double dated, for instance :
March 19 1691/2

18. Steps Called For in the Calendar Act of 1752
●
●
●
●
December 31, 1750 was followed by January 1, 1750 (under the "Old
Style" calendar, December was the 10th month and January the 11th)
March 24, 1750 was followed by March 25, 1751 (March 25 was the first
day of the "Old Style" year)
December 31, 1751 was followed by January 1, 1752 (the switch from
March 25 to January 1 as the first day of the year)
September 2, 1752 was followed by September 14, 1752 (drop of 11 days
to conform to the Gregorian calendar)

20. Tips
- Start with lowercase consonants
- Fill in the vowels until something makes sense.Vowels were often
interchangeable. For example the name Jonas might have been Jones, Jonis, or
Jonus
-A letter may change its appearance depending on whether it is the initial,
interior or final letter in a word.
-If you can’t read a persons name, see if the document has been indexed.
Sometimes the person making the index was familiar with local names
- Capital letters were used for emphasis, not according to capitalization rules
as we know them today.
-Punctation was rarely used
-Spelling rules came about in the 19th century, so words and names were
spelled many different ways. Try sounding out difficult words.

21. More Tips
- Vowels were often interchangeable. For example the name Jonas might have
been Jones, Jonis, or Jonus
-Sometime a stroke or flourish will change the way a letter looks.
- Transcribe an entire document leaving blanks and go back to fill them in
- Sometimes a word is repeated from one page or line to the next or a double
hyphen similar to an equal sign indicates that the word continues onto the next
line or page.

22. Spelling and Punctuation
-Capital letters were used for emphasis, not according to capitalization rules as
we know them today. A capital letter can be detected by its size and the fact
that there is often a horizontal or vertical line drawn across or through the
letter to indicate that it is indeed a capital letter.
-Punctation was rarely used. What you think are punctuation marks might be
indications of a uppercase letter or abbreviation.
-Spelling rules came about in the 19th century, so words and names were
spelled many different ways. Try sounding out difficult words. Spelling was
phonetic, changing with local accents.

23. Spelling Worse Than Mine
-akers
-coussen
-estimacon
-eyther
-fower
-noate
-wagges

24. Abbreviation
-pson, p’son, per = person
-clk = clerk
-Mass = Massachusetts
-Ills = Illinois
-Wm = William
-Xtoph = Christopher
-also used superscript letter as a form of contraction, such as Chas =Charles

25. Common Phrases
-Know
all men by these presents
-We whose names are underwritten
-To all Christian people to whom these presents shall come,
greeting
-In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this
(date)
-Signed sealed and delivered in the presence of (name)
-This indenture made this...(date)
-This indenture made and entered into this...(date)
-I give and bequeath unto….

26. Money
-Money was calculated in pounds, shillings and pence.
-One pound = 20 shillings. The pound was represented either by ‘li’, or £:
-One shilling = 12 pennies. A shilling was represented by ‘s’,
-One penny = two halfpennies, or four farthings. A penny was represented by ‘d’, short
for ‘denarius’, a Roman coin.
-One halfpenny = 2 farthings. A halfpenny was represented by ‘ob’, short for ‘obolus’,
a Roman coin.
-One farthing = a quarter of a penny. A farthing was represented by ‘qua’, short for
‘quadrans’.
-A 4d coin was called a groat.
-There was also an amount of money known as a mark. A mark was not an actual coin,
but an amount. It was worth two-thirds of a pound, that is 13s
-

27. A

28. a

29. B

30. b

31. C

32. c

33. D

34. d

35. E

36. e

37. F

38. f

39. G

40. g

41. H

42. h

43. IJ

44. ij

45. K

46. k

47. L

48. l

49. M

50. m

51. N

52. n

53. O

54. o

55. P

56. p

57. Q

58. q

59. R

60. r

61. S

62. s

63. T

64. t

65. u

66. V

68. W

69. w

70. x

71. y

72. z

73. Remember
● If it looks like our r or t, it is their c. (Their c would not ascend like a t.)
● If it looks like our cursive o, it is their e. (Their o does not loop back over
itself but resembles our printed o.)
● A curvy line that both ascends and descends is their h. (There is no
modern counterpart.)
● If it looks like our u or w, it is their r.
● If it looks like our f but doesn't make sense, it is their s.
● If it looks like our p, it could be their x and a Roman numeral.