Signatures are often-overlooked scraps of information that yield not only obvious clues about literacy, but also subtleties like depth and quality of education and preferred names, spellings and pronunciations. They are also, in original documents, tangible traces of our forebears’ corporality — evidence that that they were once here.

This is the fifth in a series of posts featuring the signatures of men and women born before 1900, men and women who could not take even a basic education for granted.

• George Washington Joyner (1875-?), 1918, World War I draft registration card, Wilson.

• Alexander Barnes Joyner (1896-?), 1917, World War I draft registration card, Wilson; 1942, World War II draft registration card, New York, New York.

• William M. King, 1912, the marriage license of Banks Blow and Mag Parker, Wilson.

• J. James D. Reid (1872-ca.1961), 1907, the marriage license of Frank S. Hargrave and Bessie Parker, Wilson.

• Charles Battle (1842-1910), 1884, marriage license of Cain Artis and Margaret Edmundson Barnes, Wilson County.