I believe that graphology has the capacity to be of scientific value, similar in many ways to how we study body language. I also believe that the large majority of those who practice this are ill informed and unqualified. I have not studied it myself but have had some exposure to it and I am convinced that it should not be written off as woo. I am not up to date on it’s advancements but my money would be on it gradually becomming more and more acceptable as our ability to analyze data gets better and better.
That’s nice.
I don’t
The skeptical to go site for many fringe ideas is IMHO the Skeptic’s Dictionary, and their report is not kind to Graphology:
As I said in the OP the great majority of those who I have seen practice this are highly unqualified. My mother did it strictly as a hobby and was popular at parties for her skills. For obvious reasons she tended to stay with positive attributes but would often warn my father of specific traits she saw in someones handwriting that were more often than not borne out to be true. She spent a lifetime studying it but I know a big part of her studies were based on studying the handwriting of those she knew very well and then recognizing similar traits in others expressed by similar handwriting characterisics. She claimed only some ability to recognize personality traits and would often sugest someone might be good at certain types of careers.
Indeed, and that points to the overall reason why this not being accepted where it counts: there is no useful theory as to how graphology might work, as in the case you report the graphologist knew their subjects really well, so stands to reason to think that a lot of the successes there are related to other fields like Psychology rather than Graphology.
The only useful theory behind it that I can see is that similar personality traits have been shown to express similar handwriting traits. I have only met a handful of graphologists in my life and was honestly only impressed by my own mother. She was an extremely intelligent woman and very objective in most of areas of her life. She lived over 90 years and the last 50 or so became more and more intense with her studies and research of her own. She wasn’t very impressed with the available books on the subject but saw enough in them to feel that it could be a viable science.
The problem here is that if (and this is a big if) there was indeed something special found by your mother then it is unfortunate that this was not published, the thing is that for science how to replicate something is key, if there is no good information published then one has to go for what was found so far, and Neuroscientists like Barry Beyerstein explain how dismal the evidence is (Here he complains against the use of Graphology to screen future employees):
http://www.pbs.org/safarchive/3_ask/archive/qna/3282_bbeyerstein.html
I have not seen any good evidence after more than ten years for the scientists to report otherwise.
I find it *conceivable *that there is something in it. *Maybe *a detailed professional study would show personality traits reflected in handwriting. Maybe it will in the future. Or maybe a detailed study will prove no correlation between handwriting and personality.
However, no such study has taken place yet. Graphologists are either kidding themselves, or committing a deliberate fraud.
Maybe a “weak” version?
Certainly, some things show in handwriting – such as when one is writing in a hurry vs. when one is taking time to write carefully.
It isn’t absolute bunkum to suspect that some aspects of personality might be evident, if only on a very gross kind of scale. You just wouldn’t be able to discern fine details of personality.
(Hey, Sherlock Holmes could do it, so it has to be valid!) 
I’ve wondered if people who do linguistic and psychological assessments of threats have any tendency to try to determine anything from penmanship. Even if they once did take some penmanship traits as markers that were of possible meaning they like don’t do it much anymore because very little is communicated in handwriting anymore.
I know very few people under thirty that write any notes in cursive anymore. Building up a scientific graphanaysis,were it possible, might be like creating a database of identifying psychological types based on their preferences regarding eighties popular music. Its an endeavor that would be ever dwindling in usefulness imo.
It seems to me that how people cross their 't’s and dot their 'i’s has more to do with what their 1st-grade teacher taught them back in the day than anything to do with their personality.
And yet many people who had the same teacher will still show marked differences in their writing styles.
There is no evidence, at all, that graphology has anything to recommend it.
Your anecdote, even though it refers to your mother, is worthless I’m afraid.
Without properly conducted, double blind, controlled studies we can’t say that there is anything to it all and to the best of my knowledge there are any such studies that back it up.
Your mother was probably relying on prior knowledge of people, interaction with the people, and the Barnum effect. That’s not to say she was a fraud, just that she was human.
Probably because their parents helped them with their homework.
Writing style is like an accent - it’s something you pick up from your surroundings.
How do you feel about reading body language? Even animals can read body language to some extent. . I see handwriting as an extended form of body language with much more potential for revealing mind sets. When we listen to a persons voice we hear a tone, a pitch, a rythmn all these same characteristics can come through in handwriting.
There is zero evidence of this and frankly I don’t believe it one bit.
OK…on what information or data is this belief based?
Ah. Nothing at all. I see.
Certainly there tends to be a difference in the way men and women write, so it’s not unreasonable to assume you could extract some other information also. But it’s kinda an old fashioned concept anyway. Few young people nowadays get enough practise writing that they develop their own style.
Funny, that’s what my dad says about dowsing. 
Hell, I’m not young, and the only things I’ve written by hand the past ten years or so are shopping lists and checks.