Problems with Old Documents

Posted by Darlene Vaillancourt Apr 5, 2007

Don't pin all your hopes on copies of very old records or documents, a fact I have recently learned. I contacted a records office in Cheshire, England and ordered copies of wills for 4 of my ancestors. These documents are written in detailed calligraphy and are a great addition to my collection of original source records.

Well, three of them are nice and interesting. The fourth one is more of a puzzle than anything else. Of course, that doesn't make it any less interesting. It never dawned on me that the handwriting and language would be so different back in 1635. It's a handwritten document, and very few of the letters are the same as we write them now. So I am slowly but surely working my way through the text, picking out words and letters as I go.

Ironically, this is for Thomas Church, the one ancestor who has been giving me so much grief lately.