Saturday, November 3, 10 am Transcribing old documents

Ginger Christmas-Beattie will present "Transcribing old documents”, a lecture on reading the English handwriting of America in the 16th and 17th centuries. This can be applied to any document once one has an understanding of the old grammatical forms. Ginger has over 40 years of practical genealogical research experience, and has been involved with the Genealogical Society of Washington County, as well as other genealogical societies throughout The United States. As author and publisher, she has produced 13 books and 7 CD's of historic documents, census and court records and a book on the Christmas Family history through her business, Ancestral Tracks.

If you have documents you need help with please bring them and we can work on them together. Carol and I will bring some examples to practice on as well.

The following is an outline of Ginger's presentation. A four page hand-out will be available at the meeting.

Transcribing Old Documents
Key points to transcribing
Poor Condition of Microfilm and Original Documents
Bleeding Through on Pages from Writing on Other Pages
Errors in Copying Old Documents
Old Terminology
Ink and Paper
Spelling Standards of the Time
Lack of Punctuation
Poor Quality of the Environment
Development of skills
Things to watch for
The basic mechanics of transcribing
Transcription:
Extract:
Abstract:
Documents
Census Reports:
Deeds:
Marriage Records:
Birth and Death records:
Wills
Suggested Reading
Tips