Reading old handwriting

The technical term for reading old handwriting is palaeography.

In order to transcribe handwritten records accurately, the family historian needs to develop some skill in this area.

Useful websites

• Tips for reading old handwriting Help & Advice Centre, Ancestry
• 11 Tips For Reading Old Handwriting findmypast blog.
• There’s an AI for That: Transcribing Handwriting by Dr. Margaret McMahon Jan 20, 2024. aweekofgenealogy.com
• Lost in translation? Not anymore! Navigating handwritten documents with ease 23 January 2024. Queensland State Archives.
• Useful Tips for Reading Handwritten Documents NSW Government State Archives and Records website, now archived.
• Palaeography: reading old handwriting 1500 – 1800 A practical online tutorial The National Archives, Kew.
• Tips and resources for reading Elizabethan secretary hand Article Id: 1497 April 20, 2020. FamilySearch Help. "Secretary hand" developed in Europe during the early 16th century (1500s) as an easily legible style of handwriting for court and other government business.

Handwriting Helps: English, a FamilySearch indexing Help page, with links to a Guide.

Images: Given Name Handwriting Abbreviations – mostly from John Empoliti uploaded to FamilySearch Community. Click on an image to enlarge.

• Copperplate Victorian Hand Writing Causeway Museum Service, now an archived webpage.
• A Guide to Reading Old Handwriting in relation to Postal History by allanoliver1937@msn.com, now an archived webpage at archive.org. Click on the date March 30, 2016 to access, and note it is a download which you may need to locate in your downloads folder.
• Deciphering Old Handwriting by Sabina J. Murray
• Brigham Young University Script Tutorials Guidance in deciphering old handwriting styles. Languages covered include English, German, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
• Scottish Handwriting Website offering assistance in understanding historical documents written in Scotland in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. There is a "Palaeography Poser" taken from an old manuscript which helps test your skills (answers given!). With links to Tutorials, including a one hour basic tutorial on Secretary Hand. From National Records of Scotland.
• Examples of different handwriting styles Google Search
• English Handwriting Online 1500-1700: an online course, with links to 28 Lessons, with difficulty rating 1 to 5, based on documents from Cambridge University Colleges, with transcriptions provided. A CERES COPIA project (Cambridge English Renaissance Electronic Service (CERES)).
• transkribus.org may be able to read a handwritten page for you in English or a foreign language (12 different languages available at 2025/04). Watch the FamilySearch RootsTech presentation AI-Powered Transcription of Handwritten Documents: Tools and Techniques by Nicole Dyer. Possibly 2025 Rootstech? Similar article by the same author Transkribus: Revolutionizing Handwritten Text Analysis with AI by Nicole Elder Dyer July 2, 2024. familylocket.com
• Google Gemini has been mentioned as an efficient tool for transcribing [English language] handwritten documents, although not 100% accurate, and still needing to be checked, but saving a lot of work.