AUTOGRAPH BOOKS FOR FAMILY HISTORY

The largest group of people who owned and kept an autograph book were young adult girls but many military personnel also maintained them. Autograph books, whilst being essentially personal, can be a resource for other areas of social and local history. They are not a private diary nor were they intended for public use but autograph books are a record of interaction and engagement. They are unique amongst family records.

It is unlikely that autograph books will provide you with genealogical facts but if you are engaged in family history, then there is so much in those books that puts the flesh on the bones of your ancestors and often provides a true perception of life at the time. Autograph books provide a means of exploring life, attitudes and perceptions. Given that autograph books are a visual medium, they incorporate illustrations and text. They bring this type of material culture into historical records.

It was very common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for people to own an autograph book. They were readily available in many shops and were frequently given as birthday or Christmas gifts. The owners collected autographs of family, friends or people they met at social, sporting or cultural gatherings. During the First World War, they were frequently used by soldiers to gather the autographs of their battalion members or their fellow prisoners in POW camps. If your ancestor served in a Pals battalion,  then other names will usually mean something. (These Pals Battalions were made up of men who had all enlisted together in local recruiting drives; they were promised that they would always stay in that battalion and not be moved to other units.)

Nurses or VADs were stationed in particular areas of war or served in the many convalescent hospitals; they kept autograph books as a record of their time there and these contain messages and autographs from the servicemen that they cared for. They can provide a valuable insight into that person’s life.

Traditionally autograph books were exchanged to be filled with poems, drawings, personal messages and mementos. They were particularly popular among university and grammar school students. Many were pocket-sized leather-bound accessories kept by young people of all social classes. For family history researchers, they are often filled with either signatures or contributions of close and extended family. They can also prove to be a real treasure when they contain information such as marriage notices and obituaries. Some even contain photographs. Even if your own ancestors did not keep their own books they may well have provided content for one owned by another family member or friend.

Finding an autograph book owned by an ancestor could help your family history research.

The most useful entries will be contributions made by family members which record a name, relationship, and the date and place. Finding such information is confirmation that that the person was alive at the time and where they were. Virtually all autographs will help a researcher visualise something about the history and social circles surrounding your ancestor at the time. Pay particular attention to the entries made by neighbours and school friends. Seeing which school friends signed the book can lead to identification of the school attended or where someone may have worked. In many cases clues exist which will enable you to look at other documentary evidence for more genealogical facts

An autograph book can enlighten you about the ambitions or objectives of its owner. They may even contain signatures or messages from celebrities of the time. Music hall stars, football players or artists commonly signed autograph books. Some owners of books practised philography. Whilst not directly connected to your family, they can lead you to more information. It may be your ancestor played football for a local team and they were visited by a football professional. This could lead to provincial newspaper reports of the event or to team photographs with that star. Interpreting the styles of handwriting or the use of local dialect, sayings or slang can tell you a great deal about both you ancestor and the locality in which they lived.

Analysis of handwriting can tell a great deal about the character of your ancestor. There are certain principles of graphology which can be applied to all people. Bear in mind that graphology was popular around the end of the nineteenth century so by interpreting how someone wrote can tell you what your ancestor was like.

In contributing an autograph, people had an opportunity to show other talents including artistic skills. Any verse or limerick may indicate the type of relationship which existed between the contributor and the owner of the book.

Most owners and users of autograph books carried them around with them so they were readily available to accept contributions in real time from the people they associated with and met.