If I might be so bold as to add something. If your transcribing for a web page, I always make any notations in a different color. For instance, if I find a very obvious misspelling, "teh" instead of "the", I will add the correct spelling in red, or some other different color, in parenthesis. If a letter was left out in the type setting process, "th" instead of "the" for instance, I add the missing letter in a different color. That way it's very obvious that it's not part of the original document. If someone submits a correction I do that in a different color as well, with an attribution to who submitted it. You can't do that as easy for a transcription for print though. Back in the days of manual type setting a lot of silly mistakes happened by accident. The typesetter would transpose letters, leave them out, or just goof up completely. Sometimes when the type was pulled from the plate it got put back in the wrong bin. The next time they needed those letters they just grabbed out of the bin and got the wrong letter. I agree that any transcription should be as accurate as possible to the original document On 06/03/2011 07:52 AM, Sandi Gorin wrote: > Many of us transcribe old records frequently and we try to show the > source just as it is written - spelling errors, date errors and all. > Agreed that it is sometimes difficult to always read the writing or > decipher dates on old faded records. But, one of the most important > things we should do is to transcribe it as it is written. We > shouldn't alter the information when we catch an error in the source. > > As as example: Mary was often known as Polly. If we find a document > showing Polly, we might be tempted to change it to Mary .If one > source document lists Dickinson and we know it's Dickerson ... we > should never change the source. Or - if a place or date of birth is > incorrect on one record, we should not change it. That's what the source said. > > What do you do then? Make a notation or otherwise flag the incorrect > data and say how we know it is wrong. Cite a source perhaps, or other > evidence that proves it incorrect. Remember that often the clerks - > or the individuals themselves - didn't know the correct spelling or > date. Many still didn't read or write; or the clerks spelled names as > they "heard them." > > So, never alter source information ... show it as it is and then add > your notes. > > Sandi > > > > > Sandi's Puzzlers: http://www.gensoup.org/gorinpuzzles/index.php > Sandi's site: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- "A good moral character is the first essential in a man." George Washington _ _... ..._ _ _._ ._ ..... ._.. ... .._