Pat said: >I think that Overseers' Accounts and Church Wardens' Accounts are >fantastic <snip> and listed some available transcripts. Thanks for the overview, Pat. Yes, poor records are a goldmine of information where they survive, and throw up plenty of problems too. A particularly frequent (if sad) problem solver is that poor law records often provide clues to the living relatives of a burial entry in the PR, and help identify the deceased (provided they are poor enough) For Nailsea, I hope soon to complete a name index of the first set of records, which I will post on line. I can then offer look-ups, which would be quite impossible without the index to work from. I considered a full transcription, but the volume (one of three) which I am working from is well over 300 pages and the irregular formatting and layout of pages and odd spellings would make it a huge job. Ian

Hi Ian, I am involved in a similar project to transcribe Poor Law records of Kirby Muxloe in Leicestershire and faced the same daunting prospect as you when faced with hundreds of pages. I'm gradually evolving a technique to simplify the task and make it a practical proposition. I offer the following suggestions that you and others doing similar work may like to consider: 1) Only transcribe the names, since that's what most people are interested in (from your posting, you already plan to do this). 2) Use voice recognition software and dictate the names, instead of typing them. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking software. 3) Restrict the vocabulary of the voice recognition software to just the names you are transcribing and gradually build up this list. You can train it to recognise the list. 4) Use MS Word automatic index generation using a concordance file to create the index from a transcription that follows the original pages. 5) You may also wish to consider converting images of the original records into PDF format and making them available, either on-line or on CD. There are free PDF converters available. Hope this helps, Mike Gould Leicestershire -----Original Message----- From: bristol_and_district-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:bristol_and_district-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Ian Sage Sent: 05 April 2010 17:27 To: bristol_and_district@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [B&D] Overseers' Accounts Availability (was Female officers) Pat said: >I think that Overseers' Accounts and Church Wardens' Accounts are >fantastic <snip> and listed some available transcripts. Thanks for the overview, Pat. Yes, poor records are a goldmine of information where they survive, and throw up plenty of problems too. A particularly frequent (if sad) problem solver is that poor law records often provide clues to the living relatives of a burial entry in the PR, and help identify the deceased (provided they are poor enough) For Nailsea, I hope soon to complete a name index of the first set of records, which I will post on line. I can then offer look-ups, which would be quite impossible without the index to work from. I considered a full transcription, but the volume (one of three) which I am working from is well over 300 pages and the irregular formatting and layout of pages and odd spellings would make it a huge job. Ian ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to BRISTOL_AND_DISTRICT-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Mike said: >I am involved in a similar project to transcribe Poor Law records of Kirby >Muxloe in Leicestershire and faced the same daunting prospect as you when >faced with hundreds of pages. I'm gradually evolving a technique to >simplify the task and make it a practical proposition. Thanks, Mike - some useful ideas there. >Use voice recognition software and dictate the names, instead of >typing them. How do you cope (if you do) with the multiple spellings of a single name typical of old records? I have taken the view that these should be retained as they indicate the variability of use and possibly indicate the interconnection of people who ended up with different surnames which might once have been the same. I also have the unsupported conviction that variant spellings may indicate local pronunciation in some cases. Spelling changes often indicate a change of author too. I have 6 spellings of "Lydia" in my present file. >Use MS Word automatic index generation using a concordance file to create >the index from a transcription that follows the original pages. I'll have to look into that - it's not a feature I am aware of. My current practice is to begin a list of names, kept alphabetical and added to as needed. Then as I work down a page, I append that page number (by one copy and multiple pastes) to each name appearing there. Every 20 pages or so I start a new list of names and the separate lists are consolidated by a homebrew program. >You may also wish to consider converting images of the original records >into PDF format and making them available, either on-line or on CD. There >are free PDF converters available. Yes, it would be good. The current jpg format is OK for a CD too. But I'd have to charge either way (I don't have that much webspace available!), and I'd need permission on that basis from the owners. I can't see it happening soon. Best wishes, Ian