v Study samples of handwriting from penmanship books from the same period as the document you’re trying to read.

v Determine what kind of document you’re studying and become familiar with the standard words and phrases likely to appear in that kind of document. For instance, certain legal phrases appear frequently in deeds and probate records.

v Compare letters in words you can read with letters in words you can’t read.

v Begin transcribing the document by writing the words you know and leaving blank spaces for the words you don’t know. Try to figure out the missing words from the context of the sentence.

v If you can make out all the letters in a word but it doesn’t make sense, read it out loud, sounding out each syllable. Hearing it may help you recognize that it’s a familiar but strangely spelled word. Some words that you find, however, may not be used anymore. Try looking them up in the Oxford English Dictionary, which contains old and obscure words that may not be listed in other dictionaries.

v Beware of look-alike letters. The capital forms of l and s, i and j, and k, p, and r often look very similar in old documents, as do lowercase a, o, and u.

v Be aware of letters that have changed appearance over time. The letter s (both capital and lowercase) used to be written like today’s lowercase f. This form was used generally in words with a double s, like pass. In these words, the first s often looks like an f and the second like an s (so pass would look more like pafs).

v Watch out for unfamiliar abbreviations, which are common in old documents. Abbreviations were indicated in different ways: lines drawn through, over, or under letters or whole words; smaller letters, either above or below words; and one or two dots after a word.

v Make an enlargement of a document or look at it with a magnifying glass.

v Ask other people to look at the document; some people can make out words that others can’t.
v Treat your document as a mystery to be solved and have fun!