A Guide to 17th Century Virginia Court Handwriting

Description

Handwritten documents can vary from easy to read to impossible. When the various letterforms of the 17^th and 18^th centuries (and even the early 19^th century) are added to the mix many researchers just give up—even if it means not breaking down that brick wall. This handbook is a letterform-by-letterform guide to interpreting those impossible-to-read early colonial documents. While focusing on 17^th-century Virginia court hand, many of these idiosyncratic letter forms were carried forward sometimes in a slightly altered format. The authors were self-taught—working together to parse out the words and collect information to be used in the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities’ (APVA) Virginia Settlers Research Project. Enhanced by suggestions from a variety of researchers prior to its original publication in 1980, it provides multiple examples, not only of letterforms but also of common given names and document formats. Once out-of-print, the APVA granted the Virginia Genealogical Society permission to reprint the booklet, which is now in its second reprinting. Kent P. Bailey and Ransom B. True. 1981. Reprint (2015) 62 pp; paper; stapled.