Transcribe as Soon as You Can

Transcribing wills, deeds, and other records is not done to create book work for genealogists. Even if records are obtained in digital image format, it is often easier to work with the text of a document. Transcription also helps the transcriber to notice more details contained in that document–particularly “little words” that can have significant meaning. Those small words can be easy to overlook when one just does a silent reading of a docuement. It is also easier to search the text of documents for key names, places, etc. when those documents have been typed.

Take a look at what is on my genealogy bookshelf.