French Handwriting

Online Tutorials for French Handwriting on Learning Center
Many resources exist that will help you read French records. One of these is the Reading Handwritten Records Series of free online classes available at FamilySearch. It includes tutorials on

BYU Script Tutorial for Reading French

 * Script Tutorial for Reading French

Guide to indexing Toulouse, La Dalbade parish register (baptisms) from 1571-1599 and after
Guide to reading and interpreting old parish records of Toulouse for the purpose of indexing and reading old French handwriting. Click [[Media:Yvettesguide1571-1620.pdf|here]] to open the guide.

French Records Extraction Manual
Another resource is the French Records Extraction Manual, Full Manual. Much more is covered, but these first four lessons are especially useful.
 * The website housing these PDF files is currently down for maintenance.
 * Chapter 1: Old French Records
 * Chapter 2: Parish Christening and Civil Birth Entries
 * Chapter 3: Marriage Entries
 * Chapter 4: Other Entries
 * Chapter 5: French Handwriting and Spelling
 * Chapter 6: Name Identification
 * Chapter 7: Gender
 * Chpater 8: Dates
 * Chapter 9: Putting it all in practice
 * Appendix A: French Occupations List
 * Appendix B: Common Abbreviations
 * Appendix C: Answers to Self-Evaluation Exercises
 * Glossary