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…