Re: [ranchos] Re: Reading Old Handwriting

[Alberto Duarte <albertodua@...>]

Viewing old church records:
I learned something about reviewing old church records
whenever trying to read them:  You have to read them
real slow and look for key letters that make up your
ancestors first and last names.  The overall
penmanship of the priests was very good, but the
copied documents are usually in poor condition because
of time. 

A couple of years ago I was looking at the 1700s Jerez
church marriage records, and I noticed my
greatggggggmothers last name of Sanchez.  The letters
S,a,c, h and z, stood out, and then I looked closer
and found my greatggggggfathers last name (Duarte)
which was spelled like Quarti.  Upon further review of
the record I found other names that were barely
identifiable (Salazar and Sanchez)which were the last
names of my greatgggggggparents.  They got married in
1797 in Jerez, and after years of research I was also
able to identify the other names listed on the record
as my aunt and uncle (Gamboa family).

After many years of researching, I have found names
listed on the marriage and baptism records, are
usually relatives of the party. 

Also, please have a lot of patience, because
researching of old church records is a very slow
process, but it is worth the time and effort.

I've recently noticed that my last name Duarte, being
spelled Huarte!  Which name is correct? probably both
of them. 

Alberto Duarte
Santa Maria, California

--- zendean <usa20@...> wrote:


---------------------------------
Emile;  I agree with you post about old Handwriting
and wrote that effect earlier. I am extracting - Our
lady of Candelaria Cahtolic Church in Gatamala. I
think I have the lettering right and the priest
changes ! One priest will write and "T" by crossing a
"J" another priest will come and the "J" becomes a
semi-"J" with a "U" above it. SEEESH !  You are not
the only one with this problem and I just wanted to
express my frustration along with you.  One thing that
gets tyo me is the thin pens used so the entry is
faint and the letters undestingguishable. I prefer the
broad sweeping strokes of some of the priest who us a
standard caligraphy. 
 
Happy to see your entry.
 
Jose Luis Macias
 


-----Original Message----- 
From: Emilie Garcia 
Sent: Jul 12, 2005 8:00 PM 
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com 
Subject: Re: [ranchos] Re: Reading Old Handwriting 


I agree with Angie about all the good hints given in
the Genealogy.com articles on Colonial writing.  It is
amazing to me that throughout the Western world in the
18th century, when communicating and traveling took
forever, that people used the same script from London
to Madrid to New York to Mexico.  Since the priests
were the educated class, I guess they standardized
handwriting.  However, it is also amazing to me that
even in 18th century records, I sometimes come across
script that is as modern as what we use today.  I
bless such priests when I read their jottings in
baptisms, etc., and I curse the ones who had sloppy
handriting or used the most archaic scripts.  
 
For each change of priests in the recordings of
baptisms, etc, I have to study and compare the way a
particular priest formed his letters before I can
understand his writing---then just as I am familiar
with his writing, there comes another priest's
handwriting, and off we go again.  Also, don't you
also just hate it when they use abbreviations such as
"en dcho dia del dcho mes de dcho a~no" and you have
to scroll back ten frames to find out what day, month
and year you are in when you come across a record you
want to copy?  I think also finally after many years
of viewing thousands upon thousands of microfilmed
records I have made a mental note of all the possilbe
abbreviations used for the many given names and
surnames, etc.  I love going to the FHC at Salt Lake
City where they have the 40X and 60X viewers.  Our
local FHC doesn't have those, and I have to use a
magnifying glass, and my eyesight is just about shot. 
Amen.
 
Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA
 
----- Original Message -----
From: aajay1073
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 3:20 PM
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ranchos] Re: Reading Old Handwriting
 
As an added note...for anyone starting out.  I
recommend you read all 
the articles from the last link regarding handwriting
and common 
mispellings.  The record abstracts become easier to
read if you are 
aware of the handwriting 'issues' described.  Also
searching for your 
ancestors with the common mispelling thrown in allow
you to find 
baptizism and marriage records that you won't find
otherwise.

Angie

--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "aajay1073"
<aajay1073@y...> wrote:
> Under Genealogy.com Research guidelines, Deciphering
Documents and 
> Handwriting there are a few articles:
> 
> 1) Reading Handwriting
> http://www.genealogy.com/00000010.html
> 
> Towards the top of this document it says:
> "Watch out for double S's. The first S in a pair was
often written 
to 
> look like a lower case F."
> 
> 2) Guidelines for Reading Old Documents
> http://www.genealogy.com/68_sperry.html
> 
> The material at Genealogy.com is a good read if you
have a chance 
to 
> browse over there:
>
http://www.genealogy.com/developing_research_skills.html
> 
> Good luck,
> Angie
> 
> --- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, Joseph Puentes
<makas@n...> wrote:
> > 
> > I was watching a documentary about American Slave
Narratives. In 
one 
> of 
> > the stories it was talking about slaves being sold
at auction and 
> they 
> > showed a bill of sale. the time period was about
1850. In the 
bill of 
> > sale at the bottom it spell "witness" like this:
> > 
> > "witnefs"
> > 
> > now this reminds me of the times I've seen
Castañeda spelled 
Caftañeda
> > 
> > does anyone know about the use of the "F" for
"S's" in early 
> handwritting?
> > 
> > thanks,
> > 
> > joseph





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