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The Letters of William B. Anderson to Mary Louisa (Fischgens) Anderson, 1862–1864

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Anderson Letters Transcription Aid

The legibility of handwritten documents varies widely. An individual's handwriting may be inherently easy or difficult to read, but the legibility of that same person's handwriting will vary greatly depending on circumstances: infirmity caused by age or ill health, available tools (a dull pen, runny ink, rough paper), surroundings (trying to write in dim light or on a tossing ship), mood (writing in a hurry or under duress), accident (spilled coffee), deliberate alterations (crossing something out), the degradation of the written artifact (fading ink, crumbling paper), and so on. We used the following methods to decipher words that were difficult to read:

• Reading in context. Ask yourself what word is most likely to occupy the spot in the sentence where you are stuck. Look to the topic of the surrounding paragraph or the entire document as well.
• Comparing letterforms. Often it is helpful to look at known words elsewhere in the document or the person's writing where the letters you think you might be looking at occur. In the table below, we list examples of the numerals 0-9, uppercase and lowercase letters A-Z, and some common marks of punctuation. Because the table provides the examples in word or phrase contexts, one can actually find multiple examples of most letterforms. In a few cases of critical or hard-to-read characters, we provide multiple rows with examples. If a letter doesn't appear in the table (e.g., capital X), no clear example of that letterform occurs in the letters.
• Tracing letters. Sometimes, tracing the word you are trying to decipher, either by looking at the screen and writing on paper or by printing out the page and tracing over the word, can help to solve a transcription problem.
• Having someone else read the letter aloud. And finally, it is often helpful to enlist another pair of eyes. While a partner reads a passage aloud slowly, identifying all capital letters and marks of punctuation, follow along in the manuscript.

Character	Phrase	Example
0	Cin Aug 10 / 64
1	Cin June 16/62
2	June 27
2	Cin Monday 28 1862
2	Cincinnati March 22d 1863
2	Cin Sunday Aug 24 / 62
3	St Louis Saturday June 19th 63
4	Cin Aug 10 / 64
4	Cin Sunday Aug 14 / 64
5	5 or 6 oclock
6	27/62
7	June 27
8	Cin July 18/63
9	St Louis Saturday June 19th 63
A	WB Anderson
A	Cin Sunday Afternoon
a	Dear
B	WB Anderson
b	Pittsburgh
C	Cin June 16/62
c	cannot
c	clothes
D	Dear
d	WB Anderson
E	Cin Friday Evening
e	Dear
e	Wife
e	WB Anderson
F	Cin Friday Evening
f	Wife
G	Gallipolis
g	Pittsburgh
H	Dayton & Hamilton
h	Pittsburgh
I	I wish
I	Wife
I	milk
J	June 27
j	Enjoyed
K	the Kenton[?]
k	milk
L	St Louis Saturday June 19th 63
l	milk
l	Russell
M	Cincinnati March 22d 1863.
m	milk
N	Nashville
n	WB Anderson
n	June 27
O	Cin Oct 16th 1862
o	WB Anderson
P	Pittsburgh
p	promised
q	of the headquarters
R	Russell
r	Dear
r	WB Anderson
S	Shousetown.
S	Saturday
s	WB Anderson
s	Pittsburgh
T	till Tuesday
t	Pittsburgh
U	of the Union
u	June 27
u	Pittsburgh
v	leave
W	Wife
W	WB Anderson
w	I wish
x	anxious
Y	Your
y	you
z	size and
period	Shousetown.
question	Pay it?
quotes	"prospects good"