Starting a Project

I dug out the box of letters from my grandparents that I want to transcribe. So far, I've discovered my grandmother's idea of dating a letter is to put the day of the week down. Since it seems she wrote Grandpa, who had just started working in Detroit circa 1927, on a weekly basis, I really have to pay attention to the postmark.

And I've discovered not everything in this box is a letter. Included in this little bundle is a small silhouette, probably either of my dad or my uncle.

It's like a treasure chest!

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Friday Meanderings

I can't believe how fast this week has gone by. Seems like yesterday was Monday. I've had a lot of stuff to keep me busy in the way of birth, marriage & death records with the odd obituary or marriage announcement thrown in. Let's not forget the census, because it seems like I find at least 30 of those every week. Where do they come from?

I've been using Transcript  (See Thursday's post) to transcribe some newspaper articles and some really long probate records. It's been working really well and I can hardly wait to start on my grandpa Percival's letters. Actually they are letters to and from his wife. The first one I read, basically the only one I actually read from start to finish, showed a side of my grandfather that I had never seen before. The man he was in that letter surely wasn't the one I knew 40 years later.

I remember years ago, reading some letters my parents wrote to each other. Both my parents were still alive and the letters were intensely personal and I couldn't read them. I have no idea if those survived and which, if any, of my siblings have them.

This weekend will be a busy one, Sunday being Easter AND my father-in-law's 91st birthday. You won't believe what we are having for dinner! I hope it doesn't become a tradition!

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

Sometimes Someone Tells you about a Gem!

Granny Pam at Granny's Genealogy recommended a program in a comment on Carol's blog Reflections from the Fence for transcribing from images that I downloaded and am trying out for transcribing wills.
The program is Transcript and it is available here. All I can say, is OMG! This is fantastic. I wish I had this program twenty-plus years when my dad and I photocopied over 200 letters, most from his great-grandmother Percival, and I transcribed them all. It was a lot of work, but it would have been made better by this gem of a program.

Right now I am transcribing a probate record that contains 65 pages. Of course, some of the pages are just folder covers, but some are quite detailed. You can set the image to scroll line by line as you hit enter for a new line and/or as word wrap starts a new line.  It will save the document as an .rtf. Right now, I'm typing and then copying and pasting into my genealogy software. It's a beautiful thing and it is freeware.


Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes