Recently, a woman came into the State Archives with a very old, very large document. It was folded parchment paper covered in beautiful scrolling letters. She said she bought it years ago at a garage sale somewhere in the state, and she brought it in to see what, if anything, we could tell her about it. Specifically, she wanted to know if we could help decipher the handwriting to tell her what it was and who was involved.

The Archives holds many partially and fully hand-written documents.[i] Since it is our goal to maintain these records and make them accessible, we often have to index and transcribe them. Unfortunately, that old script and handwriting is not easy for our modern eyes to read. In the instance of this old document, the writing was clear (not always true in these records), but it was flourishing and calligraphic, and not spaced in any way like the text you are reading on this screen.

Handwriting may range from scratch marks to grandiose flourishes, but script type is not the only reason these types of records are hard to read. For example, some authors and originators of these records had limited communication and education. The clerks recording these documents (who would have had some formal education) might have been dealing with individuals who didn’t speak English, much less write in it.

This is a selection from a tract book record, showing some of the first purchases of land. Handwriting is not the only issue in these sorts of records; different codes indicated different things, different types of ink are used in the record (difficult to tell here, as this is taken from the microfilmed copy), and often, different handwriting can be seen on the same pages.

Even though the majority of settlers here spoke languages derived from the same Proto-Indo-European language base,[ii] the languages were spoken differently, accented differently, and sometimes were written differently. [iii]). Recording what was heard, trying to determine how it was spelled, and gaining some semblance of accuracy must have been difficult enough.

Some clerks or other individuals ended up using their native tongue in documents, or used a mixture of languages in these documents. However, even some typed items show obvious differences, such as old German script, as seen in this German-published Staats-Anzeiger newspaper from 1907.

Der Staats-Anzeiger was published in different locations in North Dakota at different periods of time. Entirely in German, it used old German typescript. These papers often published local items of interest, such as letters to and from the old country and other parts of the new country from German settlers in the area.

More frequently than not, we in the Archives receive or discover these items when both parties are long gone. By this time, we are also dealing with old records that may have been housed in poor conditions, resulting in the added possibility of deterioration.

So, how do we determine what is on these records?

Everything is a clue. We know some script types are different, and we know when (and in what language) they are more prevalent. We know older and earlier records mean certain things.[iv]

Sometimes we can also figure it out by looking at other handwriting on the pages. For example, if I can determine a few words, I can then match some letters in other words, and perhaps find a few more, until I can eventually understand the gist of what is being said. I then know what the letters of those words should look like, and may be able to determine a few more words. We can draw a very pale comparison to the significance of the Rosetta stone, and how linguists were able to determine a fully different language through the use of words they already knew.[v] And of course, it helps to have images to pair with names, newspapers to check for ongoing events, and even a general idea of the area. It also helps to know who might have been in the area. Catholics might have used Latin in some of their documents. If Scandinavians settled more in one area than another, we might be able to guess (if we don’t know) that an item from that area is written in Norwegian, rather than Ukrainian.

As for that old, fully hand-written document that I mentioned at the beginning; the woman was able to pick out a few words, and we figured out a few more, so we did help her somewhat. We were able to help her determine that it was an indentureship agreement from the east coast.[vi]

Reading old writing can be tough, but it is thrilling to determine one more piece of the puzzle.

This page is taken from the pages of MSS 10369, James Flynn’s papers, 1878-1887. This collection consists of receipts, financial accounts, and correspondence concerning the distribution of grain and supplies and the transfer of cattle by a wagon master of the North Western Express, Stage, and Transportation Company. Again, this is from microfilm, and the copy is already in poor condition. What can you make out?