A recent private email mentioned the Palmer Method of writing and asked when it came into favor (the general answer: the 1890s). An earlier method was the Spencerian Method which became popular in the 1860s and continued until the Palmer Method was generally adopted. Your ancestor who served in the Civil War was probably not using the Palmer Method and likely wasn’t taught the Spencerian Method either–assuming he went to school.
Links:
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An easier to read copy of the Spencerian Penmanship book is here https://archive.org/stream/TheoryOfSpencerianPenmanship/Theory%20of%20Spencerian%20Penmanship#page/n23/mode/2up And I suspect there is a book at google books for the rest, too.
Thanks!
Enjoyed the penmanship info! The younger generation will not be able to read our cursive in the future unless it is taught in the schools. Printing is much slower than cursive; how will they take notes in class? Oh, I forgot! They will have a chip inplanted in their brain.
Concerning the link above: a search in the 1850 census in Yazoo County, Mississippi (image 8 of 98) for “Leonidas Stampley” is a perfect example for the formation of L and S as shown in the Spencerian Penmanship book.
[…] I was spurred into writing this post by a post on “Rootdig,” the genealogy website of Michael John Neill, posted on April 4, 2018 […]