Product Description

Family and local historians frequently encounter the challenge posed by the writing, and sometimes the translation, of the records which might most enable them to make further progress with their research. Many pamphlets, booklets and even books have been produced over the past century to help with old handwriting and abbreviations, but this new work, written by an author who has for years run courses on the subject, is the most practical and comprehensive yet for family and local historians. Based on some fifty facsimile reproductions of documents of graduated difficulty, culled from many useful sources, it provides transcripts, and translations where appropriate, together with advice on methods of transcribing. The alphabet, with commentary, of the numerous types of letter to be found in the examples (many being in the secretary and court hands which so often cause problems), and illustrations of forms of abbreviation will greatly help to unravel the difficulties of reading. Many documents before 1733 were written in Latin and the author includes an outline of the differences between classical and medieval usage and a vocabulary to cover the section in Latin. There are examples, from the 1400s to the 1700s, of a wide range of hands found in the most usual categories of record used by family historians, such as parish registers, wills and court rolls, and in many others which disclose helpful information on families and localities. Those who use this book will not need to be persuaded of the great enjoyment to be derived from pursuing research into family or local history and the pleasures of piecing together evidence to throw new light on old times. They may also find great enjoymentin the deciphering of documents, the means to that end. For the solitary searcher or a member of a class or local society, this will be the standard work upon which to rely for many decades to come.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45185 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 216 pages

Customer Reviews

The Write Stuff
An excellent sourcebook for the would-be decipherer of old manuscript documents. The book first of all reviews the letters of the alphabet, and gives examples of the form/shape of each one. In addition, many commonly-used abbreviations, Latin terms etc are demonstrated.

The second part of the book gives a selection of documents from varying periods, each one presented in the form of an image of the original text with its accompanying transcription. This is invaluable, as it is possible to pick out "standard" phrases etc and identify them in one's own documents.

Using the two parts in conjunction will prove enormously helpful.I'm currently ploughing my way through an early 17th century will which, at first glance, looks like it was written in Arabic! I had made a start at cracking the text but was struggling until I got Ms Marshall's book. I'm pleased to say that I've made considerable headway since.

Well worth the price!