Practice workbook
A workbook made from your own words, in the hand you choose.
How the workbook works
Type the words you want to learn to write: names from a family letter, a place, a line from a postcard. FamilyLore sets each one in this hand as a workbook to print: first to trace, then to copy, then on blank lines.
- Type the names, places and phrases you keep meeting in your family's papers, one per line, up to 20 lines.
- Choose A4 or US Letter, then download and print the PDF.
- Work through each line in order: trace it, copy it, then write it from memory.
- Check any letter you are unsure of against its page, starting with the pairs below.
The preview is free. Downloading the PDF needs Plus.
What the PDF holds
A cover page lists your lines and the day you made the workbook. Then each line gets three pages: on the first it is written once and repeated in grey on eight rows for you to go over; on the second it is written twice, above seven empty rows to copy it on; on the third it is written once, above eight empty rows to write it from memory.
The rows are 15 mm high, nine to a page, and your words are drawn letter by letter in this hand. The PDF is made when you ask for it and isn't kept.
With “Write it as in 1900 (Long ſ)” on, every s with a letter after it is written long, ſ, and an s that ends a word stays round. Kurrent also writes a round s at the end of a syllable inside a word, so check compound words against the s page.
Letters to watch in your words
In a name or a word, these letters are easy to misread. Write both letters of each pair and compare them:
- f and long s (ſ): The f has a short horizontal bar on the right of its stem at the middle line; the long s (ſ) has none, and otherwise the two mostly look the same. The f page
- h and modern y: The Kurrent h begins with a tall ascender before it descends — the stroke spans both zones. A y has no ascender at all. The h page
- b and Kurrent l: The b closes its tall loop at the middle line with a short arm before it moves on; the l is a tall loop alone and leaves from the baseline. The b page
Who it's for
For family historians copying out the names, places and phrases that recur in Kurrent letters and parish registers, until they can read them at a glance.