Transcription Tuesday – Scottish Handwriting

Transcription Tuesday – Scottish Handwriting

As you pursue your family history research, you will at some point, encounter difficult-to-read handwriting on a document of interest. Therefore, transcriptions should become a regular part of your research projects. Transcription Skills are developed by transcribing; there is no shortcut. Transcribing documents gives opportunity to make a clear and easy-to-read transcription for future reference and analysis. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers a variety of course topics for developing these skills through record groups from various countries. To become familiar with the handwriting of a certain time period, and in particular location, take some time to find out what script was being used. It may surprize some new researchers that not only were there different handwriting styles, but also scripts used only in certain settings. Finding these general rules will save a lot of time. Our Basic Level course: Skills: Transcribing, Abstracting & Extracting is a great place to start to develop your Transcribing Skills. As you go deeper and further back in time, you will encounter unfamiliar text and handwriting scripts. Our Advanced Level course: Palaeography: Reading & Understanding Historical Documents will help you to meet these challenges and to eventually master the handwriting you will encounter in historical documents. If you have Scottish Research, you will need to spend time exploring this website: Scottish Hanwriting.com, hosted by the National Records of Scotland (NRS). It is an online resource that provides tutorials for palaeography in the Scottish documents you will need to access.  In our Scottish Records Certificate program, we have courses that will examine…

Continue reading

Transcription Tuesday – Handwriting

Transcription Tuesday – Handwriting

Transcriptions are a regular part of our research projects, and the key to recording every piece of information in a genealogical document. Transcribing Skills are only honed by consistent practice – studying and transcribing a specific collection of documents gives opportunity to become familiar with the handwriting of a certain time period, and in particular, a specific clerk or registrar. The National Institute for Genealogical Studies provides opportunity for developing these skills through course assignments based on a wide variety of documents, including record groups from various countries. As we are researching, we encounter many handwriting scripts, as well as individual styles. Take your time when studying a document. Look beyond just your entry of interest. Review the whole document. Check the same letters in other words on the same page. If the heading is difficult to read, browse the previous pages, as well as the following pages to see if you can find a clearer entry. By studying these entries, you will become familiar with the handwriting. Some entries are written in beautiful script, with wonderful flourishes, making them a pleasure to browse. Others we struggle to decipher. Isabella may stump some transcribers for a while, but eventually, we conquer the challenge. Signatures can present another dilemma to transcribe, as they often are stylized and do not always match the rest of the handwriting on the document. Try to study several signatures to verify. Finding the signature for your ancestor is a good way to confirm your document belongs to the…

Continue reading

Transcription Tuesday – Abstractions

Transcription Tuesday – Abstractions

Transcriptions are key to recording every piece of information in a genealogical document. Transcribing Skills are crucial for accurate analysis and therefore, our students at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies are introduced to these concepts in our basic level courses. It is imperative for all researchers to acquire this core skill.  In last week’s post, we looked at making a Census Extraction, which is an exact copy “extracted” from the census page(s). Pre-printed forms help to ensure we do not miss any information and check each column to gather every clue the census entry can give us. This week, we are going to look at making an Abstraction. Abstraction Definition: An Abstraction is an abbreviation of the original content in a document. It removes all the legal jargon or “boilerplate” language, but ensures that all relevant details within the document are kept. Mary Campbell Bell in Professional Genealogy sums it up this way: “Abstracts are summaries that record all important detail from a whole document.”  General Rules for Abstracting Begin all abstracts with a source citation. DO NOT change any wording or tense. DO NOT change any punctuation (do not add or remove). DO NOT correct or alter the spelling of words. Keep the spelling true to the document, including names and places. Take your time to work through the whole record to ensure you have not missed any information. In art, an abstract painting may look nothing like the original model; however, an abstract in genealogy is very precise, leaving no relevant detail out. They do…

Continue reading

Transcription Tuesday – Census Extract

Transcription Tuesday – Census Extract

Transcriptions are needed in all genealogical research. Transcribing Skills are included in the basic level courses for our students at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies.  All researchers must strive to acquire this core skill. There is no way around it. There are no shortcuts. We all must develop these skills and increase our effectiveness as researchers. In last week’s post, we looked at finding Census Names with a few transcription tips. This week, we are continuing to look at transcribing census records by making a Census Extraction. Extraction Definition: An Extract is when you pull out only parts of the information in an original document. The extracting process is normally used for listings, such as censuses, inventories, tax or voters’ lists, etc., where there could be information about one person or family amongst many others. When making an extraction, always start with the full source citation for the original document. This is especially imperative when you are removing any information from its source as it is so easy to lose track of where you found it. How many times have you photocopied a page from a book without the reference and later could not remember where you found it? Be sure to include all of the details, such as page number, household number, etc., so that information can be located again at a later time.  Remember – Extractions are still a Transcription, and therefore, they must be a true and accurate reproduction of the written original. Always include all of the column headings.…

Continue reading

Transcription Tuesday – Census Errors

Transcription Tuesday – Census Errors

Transcriptions are needed in all genealogical research. Transcribing Skills are included in the basic level courses for our students at The National Institute for Genealogical Studies.  All researchers must strive to acquire this core skill. There is no way around it.  Transcriptions are extremely important for census record databases. Transcribers must be precise. However, they are usually not from the area being transcribed, so they could be unfamiliar with the names on the documents, although these may be very common to the ones researching them. For some transcribers, English may not be their first language. This means that they are transcribing letter by letter, plus trying to decipher the handwriting of different enumerators for each district. They do their best, but some entries are just their best guess. Transcription errors are not always totally their fault alone, Sometimes, it is the enumerator who misspelled the name by mistake, or guessed the spelling when the person giving the information was illiterate. With this in mind, we need to use a few strategies when searching databases. Remember, a true transcription is exactly as it is written – not editing the original text. The transcriber is entering what was written on the document – whether it is correct or not. When searching names in any database, remember to use your list of variable spellings. Record every variation that you find. Nicknames may be used as children, but then changed when they become adults. Some may use a middle name as their given name. Surnames may…

Continue reading