What Does This Say?

Archivists that deal with manuscript collections from the 19^th Century can have trouble reading handwritten documents from the 1800s and earlier. The reason for this is that writing styles and the grammar used then were much different than today. The letters were so "loopy" it is hard at times to tell if the loop in the letter goes with the line above or below the letter. Archivists have developed tips and methods to help them decipher the writing. Some of these include comparing letters in the same document or reading over the document several times, and setting it aside over a period of days. An archives blog from New South Wales, Australia posted some tips to reading handwritten documents. These tips also apply to trying to read handwriting from the 20^th and 21^st century as well. Here is the link and good luck in your deciphering. http://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/useful-tips-for-reading-handwritten-documents/