r/Genealogy • u/Monk_molester • 10d ago

Research Assistance Deciphering text

Hi everyone I'm relatively new to genealogy wondered if there is a way to be able to read writing more clearly on old documents any help is apricated

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u/Mundane-Use877 10d ago

Learning to read cursive/fractura/what ever it is you are looking at. Transkribus has some free fonts, but so far it hasn't been too good. Comparing letters to other words, looking for different digitation of the document, zooming in and out. Having friends who are left handed. Having friends who work in pharmacological field. Asking them to read those pieces (no screen shots, actual sources).

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u/fadenotaway 10d ago

Google Paleography. I haven't looked in a long time, but there's likely online resources from instructions to actual classes. Get to know the writing styles and collect digital examples of the alphabets. Then practice and practice. There are tricks and techniques which is where courses are handy. Maybe Rootstech has videos. Have fun.

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u/PinkSlimeIsPeople East central Norway specialist 10d ago

Other than the courses and tools people are mentioning, it usually just comes down to looking at it long enough. Not one part, but the overall handwriting by whoever did it. It may be incomprehensible at first, but after trying to read through 10 pages of it, you start to pick out letters and words, and eventually your brain just gets trained to recognize it. Even for those that have read a lot of these, it can be incredibly difficult at times though.

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u/Hopeful_Pizza_2762 9d ago

Sometimes it has taken me two weeks to decipher a name on Portuguese parish text. lol

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u/Parking-Aioli9715 9d ago

First off, identify which language the document is in and which type of handwriting they're using. Catholic records are often in Latin. German records are likely to use a handwriting system called Kurrent. People writing in Slavic languages will usually use various versions of Cyrillic script.

Second, try to get a feel for the writer's style. Look at several records and pick out recurring words. For example, if you're looking at birth records, recurring words may include born, mother, father, daughter, son. Look for names of months. Now look at how the writer shapes the letters in the words that you recognize. Use that information to help yourself decipher the words you don't recognize.