North Carolina Seeking Public Help To Read Colonial Documents Written In Cursive – IOTW Report

North Carolina Seeking Public Help To Read Colonial Documents Written In Cursive

Daily Caller

The North Carolina State Archives is unable to decipher hundreds of old documents described as “colonial chicken scratch” and is seeking help, according to WRAL.

The state uploaded the documents to a website called Transcribe NC so that volunteers could help transcribe them. The site urges volunteers to “Help improve access to historic documents by transcribing lists, forms, diaries, letters, and other materials from the collections of the State Archives of North Carolina.” More

36 Comments on North Carolina Seeking Public Help To Read Colonial Documents Written In Cursive

  1. Allow me to be of assistance. This one says, “Article 1. If you are too uneducated to read cursive, you shall not be allowed to cast a ballot in any election in North Carolina.”

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  2. Cherrybark
    “Allow me to be of assistance. This one says, “Article 1. If you are too uneducated to read cursive, you shall not be allowed to cast a ballot in any election in North Carolina.””
    But you are welcome to vote in Georgia as many times as you would like.

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  3. ℐ 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝓌ℯ’𝓋ℯ 𝒻ℴ𝓊𝓃𝒹 ℴ𝓊𝓇 𝓈ℯ𝒸𝓇ℯ𝓉 𝒸ℴ𝒹ℯ 𝓉ℴ 𝓊𝓈ℯ 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓊𝓅𝒸ℴ𝓂𝒾𝓃ℊ 𝒸𝒾𝓋𝒾𝓁 𝓌𝒶𝓇.

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  4. When I was in grade school in rural NC (Rowan Co.) in the ’70’s, not ONLY were we expected to READ cursive – we were required to WRITE in it after 4th grade – AND – were graded on our PENMANSHIP!

    GOOD thing all those ejumakayted Yankees started moving in in the late ’80’s, to teach us poor ignernt rednecks what’s WHAT! 🙄

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  5. When i worked as a substitute teacher I remember some little kids would refuse to follow the arrows on letter charts in their handwriting books that were often given out only on sub days! Something added as an afterthought and not even any penmanship charts for manuscript across top of the ‘black board’ anymore as they now prefer the square ‘smart board.’ If they don’t learn how to properly form the manuscript letters, ie, when you’re drawing a lower case D, do not make the ball portion backwards then pick up your pencil and draw the stick upwards as so many do–they don’t have clues where to start, some of them, especially in the city–learning manuscript makes learning cursive very easy and it just flows and is faster for taking notes.

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  6. I looked at one of those documents and couldn’t decipher it, hundreds of years old quill pen written cursive in iron gall ink done by someone with bad handwriting to start with (good handwriting in those days was considered a feminine pursuit with men barely mastering it at all) is not at all easy to read and transcribe into easily read modern lettering.

    Try one for yourself and tell how well you do and how easy or difficult it was.

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  7. Then this year I worked out election first time and I saw one record where you have to print your name and then sign it too–and they both look the same, both printed since the person did not know how to cursive. How convenient for voter fraud to not mandate cursive signatures that are individual markers–not teaching it actually encourages more voter fraud!!!

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  8. And I used to write letters home in cursive when I was in the Navy in the early to mid 70’s with a Schaefer fountain pen with blue ink. And took all my notes in college writing in the late 70′ and early 80’s in cursive with a fountain pen as well and tests and papers in blue books (remember blue books) that my professors could read. I still think better and write better when I use pen and ink and write in cursive. Because it causes me to think while I am writing instead of just typing words on a computer monitor. i fhr world goes to hell in a handbasket it’ll be the old guys and gals who can still write legibly in cursive and can do math in their head and think for themselves who will be the most valuable. That and drive a manual transmission vehicle.

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  9. No seriously. Go look at them. It’s basically cursive with some older century wording. A couple of them have extra noodly calligraphy type handwriting. If you can read the Constitution or an older version of the Bible, it’s not hard. lol

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  10. It’s interesting. I used to try to read the writing on ancient Greek vases at the museum of Athens, etc. lol. Some of them, you get an idea what they were for, but normally the vases and pots never said, “For flowers” or “Butter”. lol. It was to commemorate stuff.

    You know what was weird? The red-headed Egyptian mummy here and there. And the way their skin and nails were still on their hands sometimes.

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  11. My dearly departed mother would give anyone a note or instructions written in cursive that no one could read. Take it back to her and ask her to read it and she might get a few lines in before she would have a pained and troubled look on her face and look at you with the same look you had seen hundreds of times before….

    It was absolutely indecipherable scribbling that was so illegible that you couldn’t even put the message before the best Wheel of Fortune player who ever existed and have them solve it by picking out letters that were not in question and filling in the holes with the most likely choices.

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  12. Some young people are irredeemably ignorant.
    My daughter met a guy who couldn’t read cursive.
    Red flag #1
    When he asked where she grew up, she said Indiana. He replied, “So that’s out around Oklahoma?” (they were both living in Illinois at the time)
    Red flag #2
    She didn’t hag around for red flag #3. Or 4,5,6…

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  13. “good handwriting in those days was considered a feminine pursuit with men barely mastering it at all”

    Bullshit. Some of the most beautiful handwriting you will ever see is by well educated men in the 18th and 19th centuries. Where you came up with that line of bullshit, Anon, I have no idea.

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  14. “After volunteers have taken a stab at decoding the documents, experts will verify that the transcriptions are correct, …”

    HOW? If the “experts” need help translating cursive, how are they going to know if the transcriptions are correct.

    A perfect example of illogical idiocracy of the stupid.

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