Transcribing – This project involves Volunteers reading hand written letters from long ago and transcribing them into electronic text so they are searchable and easier to read. See an example here.
These transcriptions can then be used in stories here, for genealogy research and other projects.
Below are the letters waiting to be transcribed:
| Date | Type | From | To | Subject | Status | |
| 1863 Oct 18 |
Letter |
H. Clark |
Aunt & Uncle |
? |
Transcribe Now | |
| 1865 Jan 1 |
Letter |
Hyram Plumb |
John McFadden |
Selling a Mill |
Completed |
|
| 1845 Apr 25 |
Letter |
John Titus |
William Titus |
? |
Completed |
|
| 1862 Mar 17 | Letter | William Titus | Montgomery Blair | Postmaster | Completed | |
| 1862 Dec 5 | Letter | W. C. Beardsley | William Titus | Political Concerns | Completed | |
| 1863 Feb 20 | Letter | Charles Hill | William Titus | Employment | Completed | |
| 1863 Mar 26 | Letter | Edward Drake | William Titus | Civil War | Completed |
Check back for additional documents periodically added to this list.
How to Transcribe Letters
Here are a couple of ways to transcribe a letter.
- View the letter here on your computer. Open an email and type the letter into the email. When a word is spelled wrong, type it as the writer spelled it. If you cannot make out what the word is, type ???.
- Use your smartphone’s microphone to speak the letter into an email. If you cannot make out what a word is, say “something something” or “unreadable.”
Send your email to: info@FHHistory.Org
Proof Read
- You can also help by proof reading the transcriptions of the completed documents and letting us know if you agree that this matches the original handwritten text.
Key To Some Antique Vernacular
Some of the phrasing in old documents is unique to 19th Century vernacular. Here are some examples it takes time to get used to.
“I have your favor of 4th inst.” “Yours of the 31th inst. received.”
Many letters begin by acknowledging that the letter is in response to a letter recently received from the other party. “inst.” is an abbreviation for the word “instance,” meaning that the most recent letter the writer has received from the other party was dated on most recent instance of the 4th day of the month. If it was the 4th day of two or three months ago, then the name of the month would be mentioned.
“Messrs. Smith and Jones.”
For the plural version of “Mr.” in English, the French plural version of Monsieur, which is Messieurs, was often used. The abbreviation for Messieurs is Messrs (sometimes misspelled Missrs). Thus, the meaning of this is to refer to “the Misters, Smith and Jones.” or “in reference to the Gentlemen Smith and Jones.” Depending on context, it might also be used as the plural for Sir or Gentleman.
Double ss can look like p or fs
There is a character we no longer use that once represented a double ss or single s. It sometimes looks to us as if it is an f or sometimes a p. This character was the same as s or ss and sometimes it was combined with an s . I first deciphered this for myself when I came across the word Mipipippi.
