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What is even more strange is that her father, my GGGGrandfather could sign his name and her younger sister, Agnes, could also sign her name. Was my GGGrandmother not too bright or just unlucky? Learning to write your name is not hard. Before I started school, my mother taught me how to write my name in about an hour. Another oddity is that that my GGGrandmother Elizabeth Kennedy married a schoolteacher. Learning to write your name can be a very difficult task for someone who is dyslexic - not everyone is able to pick up writing skills quickly, despite obvious intelligence in other areas. Such a condition was not recognised in the 1800s or given a specific name. Sadly, even in my living memory, many of those who did struggle with reading & writing, were just labelled "not too bright" and given an awful time at school. Just a thought...Learning to write your name is not hard. Before I started school, my mother taught me how to write my name in about an hour.
Yet from the time we started school together in the first grade until we left school, she was always struggling with her lessons. What came easily to me was difficult for her. It wasn't as though she didn't apply herself to her lessons, she studied far more than I ever did. The term dyslexic was not used at that time. She might have had it. It would have explained a great deal.