Handwriting & Script » General Resources

Ancestry.com - Learning Center - Learn More

Thousands of FREE, searchable how-to articles from Ancestry.com publications such as Ancestry Magazine, the Ancestry Weekly Discovery and the Ancestry Monthly Update.

Daily Genealogy Transcriber

One Quick Handwriting Transcription Challenge Every Day-for the genealogist in you.

Deciphering Old Handwriting

English Handwriting 1500-1700: An Online Course

Examples of Letters of the 17th Century Found in Parish Registers

FamilySearch.org - Education - Research Series Classes Online

Includes videos and class outlines.

Handwriting. 16th and 17th Century English

Historical Writing

Specialized research on the interpretation of historical writing.

Latin and Palaeography: History, Keele University

This week-long, annual summer school, run by the Department of History at the University of Keele, provides expert tuition in small groups for professional and amateur historians, genealogists, archive students, and postgraduate researchers who wish to acquire or improve their skills in reading and transcribing medieval and early modern documents from English archives, relating to both national and local subjects.

Medieval Paleography - An Introduction

Name and Word Spellings

Includes a brief explanation of errors caused by handwriting.

Old Handwriting-Introduction

This article was found in the Will-Grundy Counties, Illinois Genealogical Society Quarterly, Volume XVII, Number 1, 1998 - one of many publications where it has been reprinted.

Palaeography - Reading Early Handwriting

Online tutorial with examples.

Script Tutorials - Paleography, Old Documents, and Family History Research

Resources for old handwriting and documents in English, German, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Searching Old Records--Reading Old Handwriting and Looking for Names

The National Archives | Palaeography tutorial (how to read old handwriting)

United Kingdom. An online tutorial for reading English handwriting appearing in records from 1500 to 1800. Provides tips on how to read old handwriting. Includes interactive tutorials providing practice in reading scanned documents while giving real-time feedback on your accuracy.

Tutorials for Reading Old German, French and English Handwriting, Naming Systems