Curious---Tad left or right handed?

[L Verge]

(01-26-2016 11:00 AM)Angela Wrote:  

(01-26-2016 07:22 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(01-26-2016 01:24 AM)Angela Wrote:  I dont have access to it right now, but would not Julia Tafts diary/book make mention of it if Tad was left handed. She observed the Lincoln children closely and spend a lot of time with them.

@Eva: while the custom of "re training" left handed children in German schools existed, it was not practiced everywhere. I was never asked to use my right hand for writing and neither were any of my cousins or even my mother.

That's interesting. Did you grow up in a Catholic area?

It has always been fairly balanced. However, three of my cousins of which two are left handed, as well as my mother grew up in rather catholic Mainz.

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(01-26-2016 06:35 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Can one tell if a person is left-handed from their handwriting?

I think it would be difficult today since, depending on how I hold my arm while writing, the letters lean either left or right.
However, I cannot imagine that this was possible in a time when ink would have been smudged heavily when one tried to drag his arm after the written words.
So what I am trying to say is that his letters would either lean left or be straight if he was left handed.

Angela - I had two childhood friends who were left-handed and you described their formation of words exactly right, either slanted to the left (we called it backhand) or straight up.

When I was ten, I smashed my right shoulder and spent months in a body cast, traction, splints, etc. I had to learn to write with my left hand, and I went from slanting right as a right-hander to leaning left as a left-hander.