Beware the "long s"

The most frequent colonial-era convention you will encounter is likely the "long s," the letterform that looks a lot like a lowercase f.

This was practiced throughout the colonial period and beyond. Here are two examples from 1820:

Original	Transcription
	perhaps to Laziness
	been lost by sickness.

Common “misspellings” and writing conventions

You do not need to correct or modernize mispellings or general contractions and abbreviations.

Useful Resources

Dorchester & Fordington Glossary: Index of Terms used in 17th & 18th Century Wills, Inventories and other Documents

"Clerk-like Contractions of Words" from Martin Clare's Youth's Introduction to Trade and Business (London, 1751)

How to Read 18th Century British-American Writing from DoHistory.org

Guide to English Documents from BYU's Script Tutorial: Making Sense of Old Handwriting

"What Does That Say?" from History for All the People: A State Archives of North Carolina Blog

• Part I   § Part II   § Part III 

Colonial American Handwriting Study Guide from Indian Converts project at Reed College

Reading Early American Handwriting by Kip Sperry (1998)

"Interpreting the Symbols and Abbreviations in Seventeenth Century English and American Documents" by Ronald A. Hill

English Handwriting Online 1500-1700, edited by Andrew Zurcher

"How to decipher unfamiliar handwriting: A short introduction to palaeography" from the Natural History Museum

Handbook of Greek and Latin Palaeography by Sir Edward Maunde Thompson (1906)

Palaeography: reading old handwriting, 1500 - 1800: A practical online tutorial from The National Archives

Learn to read Tudor & Stuart handwriting from Rediscovering Rycote at the Bodleian Library