Perils of records research

Now that is interesting, eventually it will be taught at the college level as a "language!" There is a current debate in our school committee to cease teaching cursive 🙂 One more lost art......

> There’s a county back east that I have some interest in, and their Clerk’s Office is unusually helpful in providing copies of documents. If you can’t be there yourself, you have to submit the request in writing, with a check, so first you call them and they will find out for you the number of pages in each document, so you can write an accurate check.
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> Today, however, I hit a temporary snag that says something about the direction of our civilization, if I may so style it. A youthful-sounding woman was helping me with the initial call, and we got back to a volume that brought her up short. (She was looking at digitized or microfilmed pages which may someday be online but are now for staff use only). “I’m sorry, sir,” she said, “but I can’t help you with this document. It’s in cursive.”
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> We both stayed calm, and she got her supervisor, who appears to have been schooled in these arcane methods of information storage and retrieval. Two pages.
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> I have tried not to rant, but if I have, then rant off.
>
> Cheers,
> Henry

I thought you get in trouble for using cursive? Just kidding. Seriously, some of those documents can get hard to read because of the cursive styling. I do know what you are saying though because lots of kids are not taught how to write or even read cursive. SAD. SAD.

This is a reflection of our keyboard based lifestyle today. Cursive is going the way of Latin mass and slide rules. What is extra sad in this case is that this was not an eight year-old school kid but an adult.

I was involved in a argument over the loss. Some computer geek claimed to be able to make a program that will translate the cursive to block. Good luck with the varying styles over the years.

Of 9, there are only 4 in our office who can read cursive. We can always write coded notes that could never be translated...

> Of 9, there are only 4 in our office who can read cursive. We can always write coded notes that could never be translated...

That is, of course freaking bizarre, but even as in Texas our General Land Office employs a Spanish language translator to translate the early title documents written in Spanish, so upon this new information would I suggest that the future holds a job for the Cursive Script Translator in every Texas county who will be able to transcribe into ascii text the variety of cursive hands in which the public records were made.

I have to admit, sometimes it's taken everyone in the office to puzzle out just what word they put down in that fine, elegant cursive script.

Yes. We'd be a lot better off if they'd scrapped cursive centuries ago, and just hand-printed all of those deeds.

Sometimes they're easy to read, but some of the ones I've dealt with are near impossible to figure out.

OK, I have to ask. Is there anybody here that actually writes in cursive? I was taught cursive in school, but never felt the need or want to use it. I guess it comes in handy when reading other's hand writing, but most of the time it is so sloppy that knowing cursive doesn't help.

I thought all surveyors and engineers printed everything.

In fact, in my mind, the time spent on cursive is wasted time that could be spent schooling kids on things they will need to use in their lives.

I'm 64, so did a lot of cursive writing in school, through college, and after.

I find that I now write much less than than I used to, and have fallen into the habit of printing a lot. I can find examples where I have switched back and forth on the same page of notes. Need for speed tends to push me into cursive - its original reason for existence. I have even written both ways in the same sentence. In a mixed sentence the little words (of, the, etc.) tend to be cursive and the important ones printed.

I still write the amount on a check in cursive. (Remember checks - another archaic item.)

How young was she? I'm only 30, and we learned cursive starting in third grade... would have been 1991-92. I wasn't aware that they'd stopped teaching it in school.

I still write in cursive, in my travel journal or taking notes longhand.

Foggy at Home

> I still write in cursive, in my travel journal or taking notes longhand.

Dear Diary....

There is truly an art in reading antiquated script. I can't think of another profession that possibly might do this more than surveyors. It is a learned acquisition of the thought being conveyed, not just "reading".

How many can actually read this word?

But when viewed in its proper place in the sentence, the word becomes apparent:

It's an acquired talent. Some are probably better at it than others.

Literally, the only thing I have written in cursive in 25 years is my signature.

I still use checks grudgingly and as little as possible.

Easy to read in context - not as easy when you isolate it.

"... What is extra sad "

Sad? Why is it sad? Few of us read cuneiform today...

As Mr. Zimmerman said - "The times they are a changin'"!

I'm almost Bill's age, and I have not written anything in cursive since the day I was appointed "Instrument Man" and started taking field notes. I was refused a State Driver's license for over two years because I would not "sign" my name.

Jim, that is quite a story and says a lot about you.

So you would not write your name in cursive so they denied your license?

Who finally gave in, you or the state?