I became interested in paleography long before becoming interested in genealogy, which made life a little easier when I started looking at Azorean vital records. I majored in Portuguese, so it was not a knowledge of the language that was the issue. (I knew that a jornaleiro was a journeyman worker, not a journalist) Many times it is not the penmanship but the calligraphy. For example, if you are not used to the fine, neat Victorian script, you will still struggle at first to "decipher" the handwriting. Once you become used to the calligraphic styles of the different periods you will admire and appreciate the very neat, albeit cramped, handwriting of Gaspar Frutuoso while vicar in the Ribeira Grande Matriz. I have never had any trouble reading his records.
Bad penmanship is a different story. Those chicken scratches on some records will drive a man to drink and I suspect that some of those priests might have entered some of those baptismal and marriage records after the celebrations, where a lot of "vinho de cheiro" was served, were over! Those tts in Jefferson's signature are the double f and the s in Washington's signature looks life an f or a j. Reading the facsimile of the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights will quickly acclimate you to the calligraphy of the period. Boas Festas! John On Sunday, December 22, 2013 11:42 PM, Pam Santos <[email protected]> wrote: There is this one priest who writes beautiful and I can read anything he writes. I always say to myself if only they were all in his writing lol On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 6:12 PM, Sam Koester <[email protected]> wrote: Cheri; They write like I do! > > > >>________________________________ >> From: Cheri Mello <[email protected]> >>To: Azores Genealogy <[email protected]> >>Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2013 6:59 PM >>Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] Paleography and Handwriting >> >> >> >>Many times we lament at how hard it is to read the Portuguese handwriting. >>It's not that it's in Portuguese. It's the script of the time period. >> >> >-- >For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) >mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at >http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right >that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." >--- >You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >"Azores Genealogy" group. >To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >email to [email protected]. >To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores. > -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores. -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores.
