Signing signatures significantly

Recently I have been trying to trace a clergybeing on the basis of a signature in a baptism register. It has prooved difficult because the signature was not readable/ Fortunately the diocesan email group enabled me to nudge someone's memory and it is clear now how to read the signature and so copy it for a certificate.
Artist: ©Michael Linley/Images.com
Of course, part of the problem nowadays is that most of us have signitures that function a bit like personal logos; they are not necessarily meant to be readable. However I am told that in the old days you simply wrote your own name in your own hand and it was assumed it would be as legible as your normal hand, whereas in these days of signing cheques, hundreds of letters at once in offices, autographs etc etc we develop signitures that are, well, interesting conjunctions of squiggles, usually. Some of us even play around for aesthetic effect -mine has a smiley face in the middle formed out of three of the letters of my name, for example.

Ps the picture cam from a great site I just discovered yesterday http://www.images.com/ many of the images are okay to use for non-profit purposes. I think that linking them like this is okay.