Research Techniques 15 Techniques to Triumph Over Poor Penmanship John M. Hoenig describes some techniques for reading old handwriting.

HOW OFTEN have we trembled at handwriting has changed greatly riage and death certificates. For finding an important document over the years. Check references example, the person filling out the only to have our spirits plummet like Ancestry’s The Source: A marriage certificate for my Peller when we can’t read crucial infor- Guidebook of American Genealogy cousins obviously came from mation? How many of us wish we (Chapter 5) and Unpuzzling Your Europe. could find and afford the services Past (Betterway Books), and search of an expert in penmanship? the online articles at Ancestry’s Techniques for Deciphering a This article describes ways to website www.ancestry.com for tips Handwritten Passage decipher handwriting. To get pre- on reading American handwriting. 1. Study all of the handwriting on pared, it is essential to note what You’ll find, for example, that the the page (or even the surrounding kinds of handwriting you are fac- sequence of letters “ss” appears in pages) to get used to the style. ing. Are you looking at passenger old American handwriting as “fs”. manifests (which were filled out In this article, we illustrate 2. Try to look for several examples where the ship departed, not at techniques for deciphering pen- of every letter of the alphabet Ellis Island where the ship may manship using European hand- (you’ll need to do this separately have arrived)? Are you looking at writing examples but the princi- for upper case and lower case let- American census records? ters). You may need to look From what period of time also for particular combi- are the records? And in nations of letters; for exam- what language are they? ple, how are letters written The first thing to do is if they follow an “o”, “v” to get samples of the hand- or “w” (these are letters writing used at that time that end with the pen high and place if possible; if not, on the line). You may want from a place and time in to paste samples of each close proximity. The old letter into a “scrapbook” German handwriting, for reference. known as fraktur, is practi- cally impossible to read 3. Study the sequence of unless you have a “key”. pen strokes used to write Fortunately, a quick each letter and practice search of the Internet will writing the letters in the give you samples. When I This 1904 New York marriage certificate for the author's period handwriting. When started reading Polish cousin A. Moses Peller was obviously filled out by a you compare a mystery let- records I looked at a dic- European American. ter to your samples you Note that Moses' age was "25 Jahr", his color (presumably tionary and learned that hair color) was "Blek", and his marital status was "Singel". can try to match pen there are several additional strokes — look for particu- letters in the Polish alpha- lar elements of the letter bet. That, however, did not pre- ples are applicable to all kinds of and don’t be concerned if they pare me for identifying handwrit- writing. Readers are likely to have been minimized or exagger- ten versions of the letters. I got encounter European handwriting ated. I developed this common- nowhere fast until I learned to in passenger manifests, emigration sense approach only to find that read the Polish letters. American lists and on American birth, mar- the tactic had been formalized and evaluated by psychologists (see Jennifer J. Freyd, “Representing The first thing to do is to get the dynamics of a static form”, Memory and Cognition 1983, 11(4): samples of the handwriting used 342-346 for a study specific to handwriting analysis). Be aware at that time and place if that one writer may use two dif- ferent forms of a letter. I tran- possible; if not, from a place and scribed a list prepared in 1939 of dues payers to a community time in close proximity. organization in Kolomyja 28 Family Chronicle • March/April 2003 (Poland). After struggling with the attached to the “d” in Leonard. If przemsyl (Polish for industry). list for a few hours I realized that you’re aware of these possibilities Until I learned this, I had a hard the recorder used two separate you’re more likely to spot them. time believing I was reading the forms of the letter “i” and also two word correctly. Keep the appropri- forms of the letter “r”. 6. Try to find the unidentified ate dictionary handy to test if word or name elsewhere on the what you think you’re seeing 4. For the letters “i” and “j”, check page. makes sense. whether the writer always, usually or never writes the dot and, if the 7. Keep track of problem letters. 9. If you’re trying to read names, it dot appears regularly, note where For example, I’ve learned that I helps to be familiar with names it occurs and what is its shape. have a miserable time distinguish- from the region. Before reading This will help you decide whether ing between a cursive European Polish names in vital records, try a dot is part of a letter or whether “u” and an “n”. Thus, whenever I looking at a Polish business direc- it’s just a speck of dirt. see a “u” I also consider whether tory, several of which are on the it could be an “n”; I also consider Internet. To identify town names, 5. Try to envision the ways in whether “un” could be “nu”, it helps to study maps and which letters can become mis- “nn”, “im” or “mi”. (It helps to gazetteers to familiarize yourself shapen. Here are some possibili- count the number of peaks and with the possibilities. If you’re ties: then list all the possible combina- reading professions in American i. the pen is not lifted when it tions of letters: see box). As anoth- census forms, be aware that there should be; for example, when er example, I looked for Fitzers in are many professions that no going to make the cross-bar in a the Ellis Island database and longer (or hardly) exist, such as “t” or an “A”, thus resulting in an found some from “Ladagora”, but “baster” and “operator” (in a additional line; I simply could not find dress shop) and “blocker” in a ii. the ink does not flow prop- “Ladagora” on any map or in any millinery. So, take the time to read erly out of the pen resulting either gazetteer. When I looked at the a few pages of census forms. If in a gap or in double strokes if the actual passenger manifest, I real- you’re reading a foreign language, writer goes back to darken a weak ized the person doing the index make a list of professions common line; had misread Sadagora (a town in during that time period and look iii. the writer changes his or Bukovina, Romania). The text box them up in the dictionary (or find her mind in the middle of a word lists problem letters. Add to the a translation guide on the and makes a correction; for exam- list based on your experience. Internet). Does the mystery profes- ple, the writer realizes he’s mis- sion in your document look simi- spelling a word and changes a let- 8. Try to identify common lar to anything on your list? I tried ter that’s already been fully or par- sequences of letters, and to identify a Brooklyn street tially formed; sequences of letters that (almost) address in a passenger manifest I iv. two words get run togeth- never occur. For example, in found at the Ellis Island website. I er; for example I misread Leonard Polish it makes perfect sense to have a current map of Brooklyn F. Peller by thinking the “F” was have the sequence “prz”, as in for reference, but I worried about

The letters “u” and “n” look very With the additional informa- similar when written cursively in a Counting the Peaks tion detailing from where the European handwriting. To make document came, we can see matters worse, the letter “m” can that the only possibility that be confused with the sequence makes sense is the name Fund “ni” or “in” or, for that matter, — Oskar and Jakob. with “ui” or “iu”. Consider the Consider the name on line 8 names on lines 5 and 7 of the fig- of the figure. The first part of ure (these names were taken from the name is Feigenba. What’s at a 1930s list of dues payers to a the end? There are five peaks. community organization in Listing out all the possibilities Kolomyja, Poland; the microfilmed leads us to “um”, i.e., the name list is in the possession of the US is Feigenbaum. The name above Holocaust Memorial Museum in Feigenbaum has five peaks in Washington, DC). The first letter is the middle — a little thought an “F” and the last letter is a “d”. leads us to the name Samuel. What’s in between? It helps to list For completeness, we note the the possibilities. There are four name on line 6 is Jakob Fuchs peaks. Thus, we might have: Fnnd, (do not confuse the “J” with a Fuud, Fund, Fnud, Fimd or Fmid. “Y”).

Family Chronicle • March/April 2003 29 Research Techniques

Problem Letters in European Handwriting The following samples were taken from a 1930s as the bottom of the “S” rises steadily. “Z” is distin- Polish list of dues payers. Compare these samples guished by the presence of a crossbar. with the writing of a Polish-Austrian immigrant Third line. To a North American, the letter “G” below. can look like “Aj” or “Oj”; the letter “M” looks like First line. The letters “I” and “J” can look very the letter “h”. “U” can be confused with “N”. similar but the lower loop of the “J” usually extends below the baseline while the entire letter “I” is above

The figure above has the names Stein, Silber, Scherl, Sandbrand, Schorr. Some letters occur in two distinct forms. Compare the “i” in Stein with the “i” in Silber; also compare the “r”s in Silber and Scherl with those in Sandbrand and Schorr, and note that the form of “i” used in Silber can be confused with an “r”. The “e”s in Stein, Silber and Scherl can be con- fused with an “i” like the one in Stein. The “e” is the baseline. The “J” often appears to have a crossbar. wider at the top than is the “i”. The letter “c”, as in “F” and “T” look the same except for “F” having a Scherl, may look like an “e”. In some cases, one has crossbar that is missing in the “T”. to use the context (surrounding letters) to determine Second line. The letters “L”, “S” and “Z” are sim- what makes sense. ilar. The bottom right part of the “L” dips low where- the street name having changed Someone may find your impossi- York City Municipal Archives.) So, over the years. On the Internet I ble dilemma has an obvious inter- check both. found a website with obsolete pretation. Brooklyn street names. If you’re 13. Investigate if there is another 15. See if you can work the prob- not lucky enough to find such as copy of the document. Census lem backwards. Suppose there’s a list on the Internet, you may have forms were often filled out in passenger arrival record for a to look at old city directories — duplicate, as were some vital Sxxxx Peller from the town of xxxx many of these have a list of the records, with one copy going to where the xxxx’s are seemingly streets in the town. the state capital and another being illegible. Suppose further that Mr. retained locally (usually in a coun- Peller is 22 and a tinsmith. If you 10. Try to get someone from the ty office). Maybe the other copy is check naturalization, marriage or region of interest — and who more legible. other records and find a Simon knows the language — to read the Peller, tinsmith, of the appropriate document. Can you find a church 14. Investigate duplicate sources age, and from the town of or social club whose members of the information. For example, Jablonow, you can go back to the have a historical tie to the area of for arrivals at Ellis Island, you can passenger manifest and see if the interest? In general, older people look at the original passenger unreadable name and town could are more familiar with older styles manifest, or the index prepared by possibly be Simon and Jablonow. of penmanship than are younger the Ellis Island Foundation, or the (If you find that the town matches people. soundex index in the National up but the first name looks more Archives (also available from your like Schaija(?) than Simon, do not 11. Try waiting a week or two and local Family History Center). Also, be too surprised or discouraged — taking a fresh look at the entire from 1908 to 1937, New York City you might still have a match; passage. Sometimes the problem- kept two separate and independ- Schaija (or whatever his name atic name or word will just jump ent sets of marriage records. One was) may simply have out at you. was maintained by the Americanized his name after Department of Health and the arriving. Keep researching!) 12. Try posting an image of the other by the County Clerk’s handwriting on a bulletin board. Offices. (Both are now at the New FC 30 Family Chronicle • March/April 2003