Click here for the old pages of handwriting examples

Handwriting Analysis – Not Graphology






These pages are designed to help you to
decipher the spellings of words and names, handwritten in old documents. 

We are not graphologists, and we make no attempt to determine the
personality of the writers.

We will analyse the different styles
of writing certain letters of the alphabet, both upper and lower
case, and show some examples.

We will then show some examples of
very poorly written text, and attempt to decipher it.

Part of that deciphering comes from a
knowledge of the context in which the writer is writing.  We
will be using examples from the 1891

census, and we will describe the context in
detail each time they occur.

Analysis of the handwriting in the 1891 census
is sometimes very difficult, partly because of the variations in the quality
of the writing itself, partly because of damage to the microfiches.

 

The problem of deciphering a name may also be because of a difference in
spelling between a hundred years ago and today.

Many names have changed in subtle ways
since the nineteenth century, sometimes deliberately, sometimes
accidentally. 

Check the links to the left for thousands of
boys given names,
girls given names and
family names and their spelling
variations

Most of the names in these lists are capitalized, we
are working to change that as we believe that they are easier to
read with a capital first letter and the rest in lower case.

However, this will take some time so please bear
with us.  Click on the letters of the alphabet above to view
handwriting examples of that letter.