I am truly enjoying the research process on this one and I have been reading piles of personal letters and diary entries from soldiers and civilians. It is bittersweet at times to work through a series of letters from a father to his family only to come upon his death notification at the end. I remember how much I liked writing about everyday people when I did my first book for The History Press on Fredericksburg's churches. I think I can relate to them better, and of course it is always a thrill to read about history that took place in your own backyard.

The majority of these handwritten copies have already been translated by staff members from the NPS, but a few remain that will require my own deciphering. Erring on the side of caution, I am only using excerpts that I can clearly identify beyond doubt. That said, it still takes a great deal of time and patience. If this was a large collection of writings from a single individual, I could construct a key of known letters. This project however contains multiple writings from a wide-variety of individuals. Therefore I will be constructing multiple keys as best I can.

My wife used to work with historical documents on a regular basis at her title company and she has a real talent for reading script. As the majority of properties they covered were located in the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania region, you can imagine the depth of time that some of these pieces went back. I am hoping to rely on her assistance.

As a historian, this is a crucial skill that far too many people neglect. Our work hinges on the quality of our research and that hinges on our ability to collect and recite data. Much like a drummer will practice rudiments to keep his chops up, researchers need to practice reading historical documents. After all, not everyone had penmanship as nice as Thomas Jefferson's.

According to an article by handwriting expert Kip Sperry titled Guidelines for Reading Old Documents, comparing words you know, with words you don't know, works.

One of the most important fundamental principles in reading old handwriting is that it is always necessary to compare: compare and match unknown letters, characters, or doubtful words in the same document to determine if they are the same. Compare with words on the same page, and then look on the pages before and after the one in question. Compare with letters and words that are familiar to you. For example, if you think a letter looks like an i, see how the scribe makes the letter i in other words on the same page and surrounding pages. Look through the record to determine how the writer forms the letter(s) in question in words you can read. Continue comparisons until you recognize the letter(s) you are studying. Look backwards and forwards in the record for similar words and letters. An unusual looking letter, word, personal name, or place may occur in the record more than once.

He adds: Most of all, practice at reading old documents. It will greatly improve your paleography skills. Study the handwriting carefully and evaluate difficult words letter by letter. Practice transcribing documents for different time periods and localities in America. Patience, practice, and perseverance will pay off in big dividends when studying early American handwriting. Read and interpret the documents carefully. Getting used to old handwriting will come with experience and will become easier to those who persevere.

VIA FACEBOOK: Michael, I just finished reading your book Historic Churches of Fredericksburg. First off, I’m so impressed. Take this from someone who is anything but a scholar when it comes to history and grammar, but I found it very professionally written, researched, and presented. From my perspective as someone who really knew NOTHING about Fredericksburg, its history, or the position it played in the Civil War, I found the book very informative. It was cool to get the perspective of the times almost through the ‘eyes’ of the churches themselves. It’s a perfect place for the euphemism “If these walls could talk.” I always knew that the Civil War was a brutal, dark, and awful time in our Nation’s history, but until you get to really dig into the actually stories, you just don’t get the whole picture of the atrocities that occurred. You’ve done a great job of bringing that to light. – Chris Jamison, Pittsburgh, PA

Birthday present from my gal pals.

Thanks Colleen, Tarver, and Liane.
You ladies know me all too well.

It was with a tremendous sense of gratitude and humility that I accepted the position of Vice-Chairman for the National Civil War Life Foundation tonight. I was aware I had been nominated, but when the vote was unanimous, I was floored. Our meeting was a two-hour session in which everyone on the board had something of significant value to share. This monumental project is coming along nicely and the tentative fund-raising initiatives, exhibit planning and educational programs are starting to come together. I am blessed to be a part of something so original and significant.

One aspect that drew me to this effort was the intentionally diverse perspective that this museum is going to present. We have ZERO agenda. The entire goal of the NCWL Museum is to represent ALL sides, military, civilian, slave, etc. In addition, we are not only going to display artifacts. We are going to give our museum’s visitors the complete back-story and conclusion.

For example, the latest gem added to our document collection is an original letter from a former slave to her master, asking that her children be hired out to her. That said, it is so much more than just a letter. Ultimately, it is a testament to the painful woes of slavery as this woman is desperately trying to get her family back. Not only were we able to procure her letter, we also had a genealogist research her family and provide us with the woman’s complete history all the way back through three other masters – up to her days as a freed woman following the Civil War.

These kinds of rare and intimate exhibits are exactly what inspires us at the National Civil War Life Foundation. Our museum will not tell the story of some random slave who penned a letter to her former owner. It will tell the story of Mrs. Amanda Holmes, a strong African-American woman who was born in Virginia, bought by a minister from Missouri who freed her, successful in purchasing her husband, and a relentless lobbyist who secured sponsors to assist her in the retrieval of their children. THAT my friends is a REAL story. THAT is what this museum is all about.

There will be lots of news to come as we continue to procure support from both politicians and celebrities. For more information on the NCWLF, visit our website (which I also maintain) at www.civilwarlife.org and keep an eye out for our Facebook page.

PS. I also want to reiterate my congratulations to our good friend John Cummings who was unanimously elected as Secretary tonight.