Do you collect the signatures of your ancestors? It sounds like a trivial pursuit like collecting baseball cards or postage stamps, but collecting signatures of your ancestors can be useful in your genealogy research. Let’s talk about signatures we find in records.
Clerk-recorded Records
Records that we find online at Ancestry and FamilySearch
that are in registers and other record books likely have only facsimile signatures.
Those were written by the clerk responsible for recording the transaction. So
be careful. If the ancestor’s signature handwriting looks just like the
handwriting of the rest of the document, then you have only a clerk’s copy of
the signature. The actual signature was on the document that was either put in
a court packet (loose papers) or on the deed that the buyer took with them.
Yes, occasionally I find original signatures in record books, especially those
of marriage records.
Home Records
A great place to find original signatures is in records found in our homes.
I have report cards from my grandaunt, Beryl Johnston, and at least one of her
parents signed the card each term.
 |
| TN Johnston & Nelle L Johnston signed the card |
Comparison of Signatures
Once you find original signatures, you will want to compare
them. If they seem similar then likely they were written by the same person.
But differing signatures could help you distinguish between men of the same
name.
I found another signature in a guardianship record that Tom
Johnston signed.
And this is the signature from a copy of his last will and testament.
What do you think? Do you agree they are from the same man?
If you want to see the collection I have made of signatures, check out this blog post.
#52 Ancestors: Week 28: Random
This is my sixth year working on this year-long prompt,
hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/)
at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past.
I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.
I definitely collect them. I'm luck that many of the original parish registers in England have been digitized so I know I'm seeing the actual signature of my ancestors...I've used them to make connections to collateral lines where they've served as witnesses! It's so cool to see their handwriting, especially those back in the 18th century :)
ReplyDeleteThat's wonderful!
DeleteI not only collect ancestor signatures, I also record when a person signed with a mark. Knowing they couldn't write their names at a particular time in their lives is as important to me as knowing they were more literate.
ReplyDeleteThat's important, too.
DeleteInteresting post. I do of course compare the penmanship in docs to analyze it, but thanks for sharing that not all signaures in record books are the signature of the person in the record, except when they sign with their mark, etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to do this. I was so excited to find a very tidy signature for my ggf William Cozzens' first wife, Phoebe Twitchell, that she had received her share of her grandmother's estate. This also proved that she was his first cousin, and that she had very neat handwriting compared to her other cousins.
ReplyDelete