Genealogy Errors Caused by Handwriting

Older styles of handwriting are very different from today. There were a variety of styles: secretary hand, court hand, and italic hand; each of these styles had distinct letter forms and abbreviations. When you find an unfamiliar handwriting style, record all of the letters of the alphabet on a sheet of paper and list the variations that you have come across. Some letters which cause special difficulties are the capital L and capital S, the capital I and capital J, and the lower case letters A, O, and U which are written similarly. One of the most frequent letter problems involves the letter S and the combination of SS. Over 100 years ago the S was written much like a backward lower case F. Frequently, in the SS combination the first S was the ‘odd one’ followed by a regular S, but many records also show a double S as two ‘odd ones. Names like Ross, Bass, and Clarissa seem to have caused problems for some researchers.

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