Transcription Tips
Background on Transcription
There are many great resources for learning early modern paleography, including, among my favorites, a wonderful account of the teaching of handwriting: http://collation.folger.edu/2013/05/learning-to-write-the-alphabet/
One website that you might find particularly useful is at Brigham Young University, where they specialize in family history, and thus spend quite a lot of time teaching even entry-level students how to read manuscripts. Before you do this exercise, spend some time looking over the resources at https://script.byu.edu/Pages/English/en/home.aspx
Tips
- Transcribe each word, number and instance of punctuation
- If you can’t identify a letter, look for a similar letter that is clearer, or where you can better understand the context
- Use the context to help you identify words
- FInd previously transcribed pages and see if a letter/word similar to the one that is giving you trouble crops up.
- If there is a word or letter that you just can’t figure out, you can put a [?] mark next to it to indicate uncertainty. Sometimes, script really *is* illegible.