Like Genealogy? Learn Cursive.

     This is a photo of a document in the Virginia Chancery court records.  It pertains to a lawsuit members of the Jackson family started regarding an inheritance from their mother's family.  I have found the Chancery court records to be helpful in coming up with names, guesstimates on death dates and things to use to further my search.  If you're in the process of looking for information on a        Virginia relative, I highly suggest taking the time to search the Virginia Chancery Court Records.  However, as you can clearly see, the records are handwritten- in cursive.  

          It's no secret that with the introduction of Common Core, cursive writing started going the way of the dinosaurs.  Currently, only 23 states out of 50 require teaching cursive writing to students.  I've always thought this was ridiculous.  More so when you realize there are some studies that show cursive writing helps improve brain development in areas like language, memory and thinking, helps improve focus and increased comprehension.  All these things are items I see as deficient in many students these days- including my own.  Generations are seriously losing the ability to read historic documents or even sign their name.  But with the discovery of these court records, it saddened me further to realize that generations will actually lose the ability to research and learn about their own personal history and families. 
     And the problem isn't just with the young generation who is still in school and was never taught cursive writing.  My generation is losing the ability to easily read cursive, and I speak from my own experience.  Most of my correspondence these days takes place on a computer screen or smartphone.  It's all typed.  So my ability to easily read through these court documents was hampered by my lack of practice.  With a little determination, I found it was like riding a bike and eventually was able to get through most of it. 
     I showed this document to my son, who is 13 and has no clue how to sign his name (he prints it, makes me think of the documents I've read with a large X for a signature) and finally this was the thing that motivated him to agree he needed to learn cursive writing.  He has an interest in genealogy and history and he realized it will be lost to him if he can't read it.
     So please, get your son or daughter or grandchild to learn how to write in cursive so family histories aren't lost!