Sources of Exemplars:
Signatures and Handwriting
In cases of disputed wills, it is often a struggle to obtain exemplars of the signatures or handwriting of a deceased person. In addition to the family’s own collection of records, here are some ideas of how and where to obtain specimen signatures:
- Access records to housing complex
- Accident reports
- Account books
- Addresses on envelopes
- Affidavits
- Assignments
- Attendance records
- Authorisation letters
- Autograph books
- Bank deposit authorisations
- Bank withdrawal slips
- Bank records
- Bank signature records
- Bank safe deposit record
- Bank deposit slips
- Bar chits
- Bible entries
- Bills of lading
- Birth certificates
- Birthday cards
- Bond application forms and correspondence
- Business license applications
- Business agreements
- Business / corporate paperwork
- Business correspondence
- Car rental contracts
- Change-of-address forms
- Charity correspondence
- Cheque book stubs
- Cheques
- Cheques: business & personal
- Church records
- Club records
- Committee reports
- Community service records
- Competition entries
- Contracts
- Convention or seminar records
- Convention registrations
- Corporate records
- Corporation papers
- Council forms: electricity, refuse removal
- Courier receipts
- Court records
- Credit applications
- Credit card application forms
- Credit cards
- Credit card purchases & transaction records
- Criminal records
- Currency exchange records
- Death certificates
- Declarations
- Deeds
- Delivery receipts
- Diaries
- Discharge papers
- Divorce documents
- Documents for trading in stocks and shares
- Driver’s licenses and applications
- Employment records
- Employment application forms
- Employment records
- Endorsements on cheques
- Equipment rental contracts
- Estimates
- Examination papers
- Financial agreements
- Foreign currency drafts
- Funeral attendance registers
- Funeral registers
- Greeting cards: birthday, get well, Christmas
- Grocery lists
- Guardianship papers
- Guest registers
- Health cards
- Holiday rentals
- Home Affairs forms of all kinds
- Hospital records
- Hotel and guest house registers
- ID Card
- ID Book
- Inside covers of books
- Insurance forms
- Insurance claims
- Insurance applications, various
- Inventories
- Investment accounts
- Invitations
- Labels
- Landlord correspondence
- Leases
- Legal process paperwork
- Letters
- Library card applications
- Library records
- License applications
- License renewal forms
- Licenses for leisure activities, eg fishing, hiking trails, hunting
- Life insurance papers
- Loan application forms
- Loan agreements
- Mail order requests and receipts
- Manuscripts
- Marriage license papers
- Marriage certificates
- Medical Aid cards and papers
- Membership cards
- Membership application forms
- Memoranda of all kinds
- Military records
- Minutes of meetings, business/leisure clubs
- Money orders
- Mortgage documentation
- Newspaper and magazine subscriptions
- Occupational writings
- Parent’s signatures on report cards
- Passes
- Pawn tickets
- Payroll receipts
- Pension applications
- Permit application forms
- Personal correspondence
- Petitions
- Pharmacy registers
- Pharmacy chronic medication registers
- Photograph albums
- Political party records
- Postcards
- Power of attorney
- Promissory notes
- Property damage reports
- Proxies
- Receipts
- Recipes
- Referendum signatures
- Registered mail return receipts
- Releases
- Rental agreements
- Reports, executor
- Reports, credit
- Retail accounts
- Sales slips
- Savings account withdrawal slips
- School records
- Separation agreements
- Show house register
- Stock certificates, endorsements on
- Tax return
- Tax records
- Telephone service applications
- Time sheets
- Timeshare contracts
- Travellers cheques
- Trustee reports
- Union records
- Vehicle registration papers
- Vehicle licenses & applications
- Visitors’ registers
- Voting registration records
- Voting records
- Waivers
- Warrants
- Welfare records
- Wills
- Withdrawal slips
- Working papers
- Workmen’s compensation papers