Thread by @FamilySleuther

For our ancestors who lived before the age of photography, their signature is often the closest we get to “seeing” them. Do you have a favorite ancestral “John Hancock”? 1/6 #NationalHandwritingDay

My favorite ancestor signature (at the moment) belongs to my 5th great-grandfather Thomas Kirk, who left his mark on the 1832 administrator’s bond from his son’s probate file. It’s simple and suggests a lot about his education and life. 2/6 #NationalHandwritingDay

I also think about my great-grandfather Marion Lumpkins’ careful yet jittery signature from when he was 89. I knew him personally and have photos to remember him, but seeing his script conjures visceral memories of his mannerisms and personality. 3/6 #NationalHandwritingDay

I think about the absurdity of my great-grandmother, the daughter of Italian immigrants born in the United States, having to sign her name to a document to regain her American citizenship after she married an Italian immigrant. 4/6 #NationalHandwritingDay

I think about my 4th great-grandfather George Hawks and what’s in a name. I discovered that his mother died young and his father, Daniel Jucket, gave up the child to her family thus changing the child’s surname from Jucket to Hawks. 5/6 #NationalHandwritingDay

And I think about my grandmother’s signature and how I see hints of my mother’s own penmanship. Handwriting can be passed down the generations and offer a look at the past. 6/6 #NationalHandwritingDay