Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Letters in the blood?

This weekend, I will be exploring my roots: heading east to meet with my family in Ontario, then south to a family reunion in Carlisle, PA, where I was born. I hope to learn a bit more about one of my ancestors: John Bear (1761-1836) who was a scrivener in Berks County, PA. Some of his documents are stored in the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg.

Which leaves me wondering: this strange interest in letters I have — which seems quite out of place compared to the interests of other members of my family(!) — does it possibly run in the blood? I wonder if any other calligraphers out there have discovered a link to an earlier scribe? Would love to hear from you if you have.

8 comments:

Ruperts said...

I also have unexplainable interest for calligraphy. But lineage here is more obvious. My grandfather worked as a scrivener in county's office in 1920 -30. They used typist wrote the documents, but books were filled still by the scrivener.

Lorraine Douglas said...

Alice...hope you had a good trip home and Lorne L. says helllllloooo from MISSA....LD

Anonymous said...

My family on both sides is loaded with artists, but I think that my grandfather is the culprit in the lettering department. He was a stone carver "specializing in the mortuary arts". I never knew him but I have seen a lot of his work. I took a stone carving class just to be able to say I kept the tradition going. I loved it.

Kim from Hiraeth said...

I just discovered your blog and can't WAIT to explore!

An interest in letters runs deep in my family. My uncle and cousins on that side are all calligraphers. We rarely, if ever, see that branch of the family because of the distance, so I did not know this until I had been fooling around with letters for 10 years.

So, yes, I'd say there is a family link.

Anonymous said...

My maternal grandmother began painting (oils) once her children (10 of them) moved out. Her work was pretty juvenile, but the will was certainly there. Her youngest daughter whom I haven't seen for many years has set up a painting studio in her guest room and I have a calligraphy studio in my basement. This seems to show that art runs in the family. (Not very scientific decision I know.)

I don't know anything about my father's family. Maybe the lettering comes from them?

Delores Rhodes

preeti said...

beautiful work of artistic calligraphy.

I would be happy to recieve your regular post

Anonymous said...
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letterlady said...

My grandfather and my great-uncle on my Mom's side did engraving. He had many pens in baskets around the house. I loved looking at and holding all those pretty marbly-looking fountain pens when I was little. It was only after he was deceased that I learned of the engraving and that he had most likely taken and/or taught Zanerian penmanship classes at a Kentucky college in his youth. Also, I inherited my grandmother's autograph book with pages full of beautifully penned messages. A cousin from Dad's side took calligraphy classes about the time I did...hundreds of miles away and unbeknownst to each other. I do think there is a link.