Transcription Tuesday
The National Institute for Genealogical Studies offers 230+ online courses on a wide variety of topics, providing genealogical education for those interested in beginning to research their family history, as well as professional genealogists. One of the foundational research skills to develop is Transcribing. For this reason, we have created a compulsory Basic Level course to equip all of our certificate students with this vital ability. However, all family history researchers, no matter what their level of expertise, should strive to acquire this core skill. Skills: Transcribing, Abstracting & Extracting This course teaches students the transcribing, abstracting and extracting skills to enhance their genealogy research. Practicing these skills form a large part of the course work, with examples and exercises to assist the development of these skills. We have also created an Advanced Level course to cover the broader topic of Palaeography, where the primary goal involves transcribing the unfamiliar writing in old documents into easily readable transcriptions to use in our research. Palaeography: Reading & Understanding Historical Documents Topics to explore include: Writing Materials, Handwriting Scripts, Roman Numerals, Currency, The Calendar, The Religious Calendar, The Church, The Manor & Social Life, Weights and Measures, Origin of Family Names, and an Introduction to Latin Terminology. The course material includes a detailed workbook, designed to reinforce the material covered, with exercises to practise new transcription skills and gain experience with reading and interpreting a variety of types of documents. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As researchers, we have found that there are many skills we…