People, As I'm on AOL, that means I haven't received any Rootsweb mail since Thursday or Friday........that also means that I have a lot of time to think about things. One feature of handwritten placenames from various documents of the 19th century, is the frequent difficulty in deciphering the florid script capital letters which were used (even my Palmer method 3rd grade teacher in 1942 wouldn't have dreamed-up some of the ornate capitals I've seen). I've been wondering if anyone has ever scanned a variety of these initial letters (with correct interpretation, of course) and put them onto a website to guide others who are having problems along these lines? I thought I had some example in my Favorites list, but they appear to be only script using the old Irish alphabet. I'm thinking more about the way placenames were written on ships' passenger lists, deeds, immigrations documents, etc. Such a visual catalog of these often-cryptic capital letters could be of great help to genealogists. I'm afraid that I can't help, though <gr> - as I don't do any genealogy, and I don't even know how to use the scanner my granddaughter bought for me about 8 years ago !!! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts