Sunday, September 12, 2021

Mystery in Family History


My cousin Paul recently came to acquire the Book of Mormon that my great grandfather, John Hagman, had owned and read.  It is a wonderful piece of history! I noticed this bit of shorthand on the inside cover.  I did have a little shorthand in high school, but I couldn't make it out.  So I sent an email to our neighborhood email to see if anyone knew shorthand.  Three women responded and I sent them the above picture!  They all were mostly stumped.  They tried and they got words, but nothing made sense.  I thought maybe in Sweden they had a different shorthand?  Then I went to the internet to see if there were a specialist in shorthand who could maybe figure it out.  Well.. The woman I found was kind and told me she would give it a try.  Here was her reply after a few days:

"Once I realized it was upside down it was rather easy.  Transcription is...

You will have to write it 
over again because I
didn't get time to read it.

I think it is some kind of joke.  I hope I have got it OK.  Anyway I'm not going to charge for this but request you make a small donation to a charity of your choice.  It is Pitmans shorthand, New Era version I think.  Best wishes, Tracey Harding"

UPSIDE DOWN!  Isn't that the funniest thing!  How many times am I looking at things upside down from their reality?  I just got a great kick out of this!


Here is it right side up!

 

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