Secretary Hand: a crash course

When: Monday 5 October 2026

Book cover showing picture of common items and their name in secretary hand

Are you attending The Society of Genealogists’ Secretary Hand: a crash course on Friday 09 Oct at 10:30 am?  It’s part of SoG’s ‘All About That Place’ 10-day programme of talks.

This crash course is being presented by Joe Saunders of Pharos Tutors, who run a course dedicated to Old Handwriting for Family Historians.

The required reading for that course includes ‘A Secretary Hand ABC Book’ by the late Alf Ison – former chairman of Berkshire Family History Society.  We are the publishers of that book so we are guaranteed to always have it in stock, and we also produce it as a PDF download for those that prefer not to rely on the mail.

With thousands of copies sold, this very popular handy guide to “secretary hand” includes illustrations of characters A to Z, common abbreviations, practice words, numbers and some samples and transcripts of wills 16th to 18th centuries, nursery rhymes and a list of words. £10 +p&p.

Find out more and buy: A Secretary Hand ABC Book

Find out more and buy: A Secretary Hand ABC Book, PDF edition

Find out more: All About That Place

Find out more: Old Handwriting for Family Historians

Full event details and booking

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