Dick Eastman’s Genealogy Newsletter had a post this week about the courses being offered for free through the LDS Church’s FamilySearch.org website. I decided to see if they had anything available to assist Portuguese researchers.
I found they have three courses under Reading Handwritten Records Series:
Portuguese Lesson 1: Portuguese Letters
This lesson covers the basics on the way the Portuguese write letters. I thought the examples of each letter were very good. This lesson runs 20 minutes. There is also a PDF file with letter examples.
Portuguese Lesson 2: Portuguese Dates, Words, and Names
This lesson covers months, days, years, and common words found in Portuguese records. There are also question and answer sections so you can test your knowledge. This lesson runs 25 minutes. There are three handouts in PDF format for dates, keywords, and abbreviations.
Portuguese Lesson 3: Reading Portuguese Documents
This lesson covers the actual records one might encounter in Portuguese research. It walks you through examples of real records. It even shows you the actual text of documents line by line. This lesson runs 25 minutes.
I haven’t gone through these lessons in their entirety. But, from what I saw they are presented very well. The audio compliments the text.
If you are starting with Portuguese records, or find yourself having difficulty understand the old handwriting, give this course a try.
