Need help deciphering shorthand doc

[yelkcub]

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for my request. Perhaps the moderator would be good enough to suggest the right home for it.
I would value any help in deciphering a shorthand note found among the papers of an ancestor in South Australia. The document probably dates from the 1850s (that's what I have been told, anyway), and it was accompanied by a couple of sketches of koala bears.
The person who wrote the note was a well educated shipping agent, who had spent time in a commercial college in Germany. It is possible that the version of shorthand employed is a German system. You can see that one or two English words are used among the text. Apologies for the quality of the scan - taken from a photocopy sent from Australia.
If no decipherment is possible, I would value any advice on a next step.
With thanks
Ian

[SaxonbyChemnitz]

Hi,
the letter looks, how Stenografie http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenografie, when he was in Germany, then perhaps is this a write in fastshrift.
I can this not, but sure you find a profi, perhaps in the museum in Germany.
The secretary learn this in Germany, but I think , that in our time is the shrift is better.
I wish good luck, think, that are shrift from the study.

Bye, good luck!!!

When you have a translator, from the text, send me, its interest!!!!!!

[Redroger]

My wife, who was a personal secretary to a senior manager in the shorthand era says it looks like Pitman's to her, but she can't read it, suggesting that it may well be in German, or indeed some other language.

[Greensleeves]

I have seen this before, and I couldn't read it then, either...... sorry.  Looks like Pitman to me but still  can't read it.

[derby girl]

Yes, I agree - I write Pitman New Era - and that's what it looks like - but it's a bit early surely for that, so may be an earlier Pitman shorthand which would make it awkward to dicipher even if in english.   Funnily enough I was at a conference - and realised that the people sitting either side of me were also making notes in shorthand - the elderly lady to my left was writing Greggs, and the younger woman to my right was writing T-line.  We were all amused - a sort of 20th Century microcosm of shorthand writing.
Regards
Derby Girl

[LizzieW]

Definitely Pitman's and more like the version I learned than Pitman's New Era.  Can't read most of it though.

Lizzie

[yelkcub]

I'm pleased to see that this OLD post of mine (December 2008) has been attracting some new interest, and I'm grateful to those of you who have responded. I'm afraid I have nothing to add to the detail in my first post - except to say that the document may be later than the 1850s - but no later than 1876. I've been wondering why 'Bridgewater Hotel' and 'Mrs Robinson' (and another longhand word I'm not sure of) should have been written in longhand in the middle of a shorthand note. One explanation might be that the rest of the note is in German, or French, both of which languages my ancestor spoke fluently. James Page had, so the story goes, been born in London, educated at the Sorbonne and later at a commercial college in Hamburg. He prospered in Adelaide, where he migrated with a couple of his brothers in 1850: he was a shipping agent whose business specialised in the trade to and from francophone New Caledonia.
Thanks again for all responses IAN

[Parmesan]

It looks like Pitman to me to, but I must be rusty cos I'm having trouble reading it!

I will say that I used to put down the odd word in longhand if I thought I would have trouble transcribing it later - as in your letter, proper names being an example.  Seems to me that if the longhand is in English then the rest of it would be too.

[davidft]

As the consensus seems to be that it is some form of Pitman's why not try contacting the Pitman College to ask if they can help or suggest who can help with historic Pitman documents.

I think this link may help

http://www.pitman-training.com/our-story.html