Teach Yourself Palaeography : A Guide for Genealogists and Local Historians: A Guide For Genealogists And Local Historians

This is the very first 'teach yourself' book on palaeography, covering all the skills that the genealogist needs to read any document that might be found at any date in English archives. Using a series of graded exercises in transcription, Teach Yourself Palaeography works backwards in time in easy stages from the modern handwriting of the nineteenth century to the court hands of the medieval period, focusing on records that are of particular interest to family and local historians. The book provides a unique, self-contained reference guide to palaeography, and to all the different letter forms, symbols and abbreviations that have ever been used in English records. "This is the very first 'teach yourself' book on palaeography, covering all the skills that the genealogist needs to read any document that might be found at any date in English archives. Taking the form of a series of graded exercises in transcription, it works backwards in time from the modern handwriting of the nineteenth century in easy stages to the 'court hands' of the medieval period, focusing on records that are of particular interest to family and local historians. It also provides a unique, self-contained reference guide to palaeography, and to all the different letter forms, symbols and abbreviations that have ever been used in English records"--Amazon.com If you want to learn to read and know about old handwriting, this is the only book you will need.