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 sixth 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.

• Joseph Lindwood Goffney (1885-1945), 1945, World War II draft registration card

• George Washington Barnes (1871-1936), 1910, application for probate of will of George A. Barnes

• Rolland Tyson Winstead (1889-1934), 1917, World War I draft registration card.

• Sidney Wheeler (1877-1912), 1903, marriage license application for John T.M. Artis and Mattie Thomas

• Cooper Bynum (1864-1913)

• John T.M. Artis (1883-1967), 1918, World War I draft registration card

• Henry Hoskins (1882-??), 1911, application for marriage license for Ed Hoskins and Lizzie Joyner