One of the major obstacles faced by all family historians, sooner or later, has to be reading old handwritten material. On initial examination the text often looks impossible to read and some are completely put off and do not attempt translation. By using the material in this booklet, the reader should develop some skills and understanding to tackle the problem.
Written specifically as course notes for lectures that Graham Jaunay (a South Australian professional genealogist) gives. While not going into everything in depth, this book does give a good overview handwriting and understanding how to read it.
Contents:
Introduction
The issues behind the problems
Understanding old handwriting
How to tackle the problem
Some problem letters in Secretary Hand
Common ligatures in Secretary Hand
Suspensions and ligatures associated with q
Some common letter forms of the 17th and 18th century
Old relationships that 'may' differ from today's meanings
Round hand example transcriptions
Chancery hand example transcription
Common Latin words encountered in texts
Hand Writing 
