If you have the time, you can decode everything from Civil War records to a World War II soldier’s love letter home
Plenty of things have slipped through the cracks of society, and many of them are reflected in people's attitudes and thoughts about things. Technology has also altered the way people live. There was a point when not everyone had a cell phone; now, it’s almost unheard of if they don’t. They are also used for much more than talking. Now, we text and email and use them to take pictures.
Speaking of email, think about how sending emails has changed the way we use regular mail. We shop differently, thanks to Amazon and other online venues, and some even use shoppers to choose and deliver the food they eat from the grocery store.
One change I hadn’t considered is that many people today cannot read or write well in cursive. I’m showing my age, but every classroom in my elementary school had charts around the top of the wall with cursive letters in both upper and lower case. Granted, with keyboards and printed information so common in our lives, cursive isn’t often used, but being unable to recognize and read it seemed far-fetched to me.
Apparently, it isn’t. Currently, only 24 states require cursive to be taught, which has left a massive hole in the interpretation of documents from the past. This has caused the U.S. National Archives and The National Park Service to reach out to the public for help. In one advertisement, the National Park Service said this:
Think reading cursive is your superpower?
No? That’s okay because we’ve got a special project for you!
The National Park Service and U.S. National Archives are teaming up to transcribe the handwritten pension records of over 80,000 of America’s first veterans and widows.
You could be the first person in 200 years to uncover their stories while making a lasting contribution to the nation’s historical record, just in time for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.
No need to be a cursive expert; not everything is handwritten!
Learn how to get involved and start transcribing at nps.gov.
The National Archives estimates that as many as 300 million records need transcribing. Susan Isaacs, a community manager with the National Archives Catalog, clarified what they were seeking to USA Today.
“It's not just a matter of whether you learned cursive in school; it's how much you use cursive today. We create missions where we ask volunteers to help us transcribe or tag records in our catalog.”
She went on to say that there are more than 200 years' worth of documents to get through. She also explained how simple it is to get involved.
“There’s no application. You just pick a record that hasn’t been done and read the instructions. It’s easy to do for a half-hour a day or a week.”
Currently, the organization has registered over 5,000 citizen archivists, but more assistance is still needed. The records include everything from Revolutionary War pension records to the 1950 Census.
If you have the time, you can decode everything from Civil War records to a World War II soldier’s love letter home. A rewarding endeavor that you can be a part of just because you can read and transcribe cursive.
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