Posts in December 29, 2023

Many genealogists use Google to help with transcribing old documents. That’s not a bad idea, but remember that Google does not “know” everything and that while the boilerplate text of some legal documents can easily be interpreted with some help from Google, other documents are unique enough that Google won’t find another document transcription that will help. Google won’t locate every term in an old document to help you understand it either. Search old newspapers and full texts of old books for terms you cannot understand or find on Google. Start with newspapers local to the area in which the document was created and close to the time period in which it was created–if possible. Also search old maps and gazetteers to help transcribe those place names. Just […]