More OT, but the ability to read cursive writing is becoming so rare that the National Archives is looking for volunteers to “translate” old documents (!) Colour me dinosaur.
Are you kidding??
Not at all…
That one’s not easy, but I could manage most of it with a little zooming. But I can see it’s not just a question of cursive vs printed, but old cursive, which includes quite a few different letter forms than the ones around when I learned it 50+ years ago. A little guesswork required at times.
1 Like
The servers and switches I work on are sometimes situated in the cellars of the courts. Most have their archives nearby or in the rack room. Makes sense as they are climatized and can drop halon bombs in case of fire.
Now and then I get distracted by these old leather bound ledgers, some dating back to the beginning of modern record keeping from (guessing) 1750 onwards.
On the wall they have a cursive to modern translation chart and it is fun to decipher the texts.
This. The capital T is ancient for example. I do know it but not from my own time. I can read most of it but for example I can’t read “the war in WHAT America”? Is that supposed to be North? The o would somehow be missing?
The T was still taught like that in my day. And I don’t have a problem seeing the o in North either. It’s the N that’s a little odd, seems foreshortened, but if you compare with the capital Ms of March and Maryland in the next paragraph it becomes clearer.
I also learned the s and f shapes like that as well, but the stylised capital L, reminiscent of the pound sign £ was no longer quite like that.
There’s one word I cannot quite decipher though, the something Court, *irbato, possibly an extinct legal term?
I found that quite easy to decipher.
Revolutionary
Probate
Now that I’ve completely OT’d this thread…sorry.
1 Like
I read it as “a soldier of the Revolutionary war in South America”. Can’t decipher his family name though, Lambert?
The second sentence holds many undecipherables.
James Lambert
And to further muddle, I had a letter sent to my German great-grandmother from a German-speaking soldier fighting on the Union side in the Civil War. No one knew what it said until I took it to some relatives in Vienna–one elderly great-aunt of my OH knew the old cursive and grammar and could reveal it was a love letter. She didn’t choose him, but married a Scot.
1 Like
What we used to call in my youth joined together writing, I could read about two-thirds just skimming through but I have no patience anymore to studyit deeply.
no, no, no, that word is not “revolutionary”, LOL. First paragraph at the end. Try again.
Did she ever get any presents?
“Schnüerlischrift” in Swiss German. Are you Swiss yet? If you ever plan to take the test, use that one 
Some fifteen years ago.
The doorbell rang I went to answer it and it was a postman with my confirmation, he wanted CHF 700 to deliver it.
I called my wife and said “It’s for you”
1 Like
Look again. Revolutionary.
I’m asking for the third word after Revolutionary.
I think it’s South. South America.