At first sight the task might seem daunting. Many old texts seem,impossible to read, but with the help of a few hints and tips much of it might become clearer.
As with many things practice makes perfect.
Prior to 1733 legal texts could be in English or Latin. After this date they had to be in English. So as you can see from the example above it is in English.
Key to understanding why writing styles developed as they did you need to take into account what was being written on and what they wrote with. For example the Quill Pen was not good at doing an upward stroke. So for example the lower case d is often written thus –
As with many things practice makes perfect.
Prior to 1733 legal texts could be in English or Latin. After this date they had to be in English. So as you can see from the example above it is in English.
Key to understanding why writing styles developed as they did you need to take into account what was being written on and what they wrote with. For example the Quill Pen was not good at doing an upward stroke. So for example the lower case d is often written thus –
Bur letter shapes can differ. In this case the d is written quite differently – it is the same word, in the same document!
This is also with the ‘s’ and the ‘h’ in Parish.
Tips
Here are some tips that show some ways how we might go about it.
1. Always consider the context of the words.
1. Always consider the context of the words.
This is an entry for marriage so the translation is fairly obvious. The only difficulty is with the capital letters. This chap likes his fancy letters. Can you work out what they are?
There are other things to notice. The ‘y’ with an ‘e’ over it. The ‘y’ is a thorn a letter that has fallen out of use and represents ‘th’. The e makes it ‘the’. Thus ‘yt’ means that.
There are other things to notice. The ‘y’ with an ‘e’ over it. The ‘y’ is a thorn a letter that has fallen out of use and represents ‘th’. The e makes it ‘the’. Thus ‘yt’ means that.
Three things to note. At this time they had no widely accepted capital letter ‘F’. They used a double lower case ‘f’ (ff) instead. So Ffarrington is wrong and ffarrington is correct. The second thing is the backward ‘e’ in ffieldes which was very common. Thirdly the last character on the line is an abbreviation character for ‘es’.
So it becomes ‘of the Parish of Martins in the ffieldes’.
2. If you cannot read a word then Translate / Transcribe the text
letter by letter.
Try this but also consider the context in the document above –
So it becomes ‘of the Parish of Martins in the ffieldes’.
2. If you cannot read a word then Translate / Transcribe the text
letter by letter.
Try this but also consider the context in the document above –
There are two things to note here. The backward ‘e’ we have seen before but the line through the d is another abbreviation character. In the same way in the word ‘won’t’ the apostrophe indicates missing letter or letters the line is exactly the same.
So it becomes ‘afores(ai)d’.
3. Compare words or letter with others within the text. Write down
the letters you do know and compare the ones you don’t to the
words you do know. Try this –
So it becomes ‘afores(ai)d’.
3. Compare words or letter with others within the text. Write down
the letters you do know and compare the ones you don’t to the
words you do know. Try this –
Initially you might only be certain of one letter _ a _ _ but we have come across one other letter -
it is the letter ‘h’. So now we have _ a _ h. The third letter could be an ‘r’ but it is not like the ‘r’ in Parish above. Look around the text for other examples –
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Can you read these words they are ‘according’ and ‘proceedings’ so our word becomes
_ a c h. I cannot find that first character that looks anything like it within the supplied text but the context solves it ‘of taking _ach other in marriage’.
The word is ‘each’.
4. Always write down exactly what is written and do not ‘correct’
spellings.
5. If necessary prepare an alphabet. Copy out individual letters into
an alphabet - upper and lower case. Capital letters can have forms
totally alien to us -
_ a c h. I cannot find that first character that looks anything like it within the supplied text but the context solves it ‘of taking _ach other in marriage’.
The word is ‘each’.
4. Always write down exactly what is written and do not ‘correct’
spellings.
5. If necessary prepare an alphabet. Copy out individual letters into
an alphabet - upper and lower case. Capital letters can have forms
totally alien to us -
Cutler
6. Place names and Surnames can be a guide to capital letters. Parish
names - Use Phillimore's Atlas or a gazetteer.
7. Get to know the format of standard documents.
8. Dates are sometimes shown in ways unfamiliar to us.
names - Use Phillimore's Atlas or a gazetteer.
7. Get to know the format of standard documents.
8. Dates are sometimes shown in ways unfamiliar to us.
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Annual (6) |
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Minimum (15) |
Abbrebiations
We have a lot of ways of abbreviating words.
In the past, abbreviations were widely used, but many differ from ours.
Some examples
- Stop at the end of a word to indicate missing letters. Co. Ltd. – Company Limited, e.g. i.e. lb. No.
- Apostrophe in the middle of a word to indicate missing letters. He’d, we’ll, won’t etc.
- Superscript
- LFHHS, acronyms LOL
- Special Characters &, @, #
In the past, abbreviations were widely used, but many differ from ours.
Some examples
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All are abbreviations for either Per Par Por for example-- |
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A long ‘s’, ‘u’ and ‘per’ (super) |
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In a similar way a ‘p’ written this way is ‘pro’ |
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This symbol marks where letters are missing evy--every |
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Again missing letters intest--interest |
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This time it is a line indication missing letters Willo—Willelmo—(William in a version of Latin). Note the capital W.
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Four abbreviations here—’es’ making landes, the ampersand, the line over indicating missing letters and ‘es’ again. All making 'landes & tenements'. |
This is just a brief introduction to the subject The National Archives do a series of tutorials. Start here before moving on to the main tutorials.
Printable Files
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