SUE'S COOK BOOK, RECIPE #9, PART 1 SEARCHING OLD RECORDS-- READING OLD HANDWRITING AND LOOKING FOR NAMES Before doing research in old records, it is a good idea to become familiar with all the variants in letter formation. Many errors are made by people who are not familiar with the handwriting styles of the colonial and pioneer periods in our country. Since I can't give you samples of old handwriting via email, I would like to recommend that you get a book on the subject and study it. You'll be glad you did! There are some very common pitfalls that I can comment on--even without illustration. The letters "s" and "l" are often confused. Both the capital and lower case versions of these two letters look the same in the handwriting of some of our ancestors. Vowels are often hard to distinguish too. Example: If you take these two pitfalls together, it is easy to see why the names Samuel and Lemuel are often exchanged. When looking for a name, let's say, in the census, if you can't find it, try exchanging the vowel for every other vowel. One of my ancestral names is Chilson. I have found it as Chalson, Chelson, Chilsen, etc. Another of my ancestors was named Relief, nickname Leafa. The person who transcribed the records in Putney, VT, thought the "f" was and "s" and the "e" was a "c". Every time her name occurs in the published records of that town, it reads "Lacsa". In the colonial period you will find that a double "s" is written as though it were an "fs". Thus, the name Melissa may look like Melifsa and, therefore, be misinterpeted. I think you can see the problem without any more examples! Another possible pitfall in looking for our ancestors is not being familiar all the various nicknames that might have been used for a particular given name. One of my ancestors was named Mary Ebaline Russell. It wasn't until I learned that Polly was a nickname for Mary that I finally found her on the 1850 census in her father's household as Polly Russell. Another nickname for Mary is Molly and another one is Mae. If you have an ancestor listed somewhere as Molly, you need to look for her as Mary too. Or if you know your ancestor was Mary, be sure to check for the nicknames Molly, Polly and Mae. This principle applies to all names. Also, be sure to realize that some nicknames apply to more than one given name. In Parts 2 through 5 of this Recipe, I'm going to give you a list of given names and their various nicknames. Read on...