Fully agree that the 'change of mind' is well worth recording. It often shines light on the thoughts and feelings of the person writing the document and can bring to light some family situations or at least hint at them. If you are lucky enough to get a run of wills you can follow family feuds and quarrels as well as the opposite (I had the most wonderful short will in which a man left his wife a cow called Lovely). This description was not crossed out though. Of course, in the more official documents, crossings out can be just mistakes with no particular undertones, except perhaps that the clerk was in need of his dinner. Audrey ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eve McLaughlin" <eve@varneys.demon.co.uk> To: <OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 10:48 PM Subject: Re: [OEL] What do I do with that extra "f" > In message <a04310104bc651ed70434@[216.114.174.246]>, Ruth Barton > <mrgjb@sover.net> writes > >It is all well and good to transcribe exactly what is written if you are > >doing it by hand but I am transcribing some letters that have some peculiar > >little curliques on the end of, usually abbreviations or number dates, > >words that there are nothing even remotely resembling them on the > >computer. So I just do the best I can. > > > >Now I have a question. What do you do if a word has been crossed out in a > >letter? > Put in in place within double brackets (( )) or { } brackets - as long > as you explain at the front of your transcript what this means. Save > square brackets [ ] for glosses, where the trasncriber adds some > comment or remark. > Just once in a blue moon, first thoughts were better thoughts or at > least thoughts worth having > -- > Eve McLaughlin > > Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians > Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society > > > ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== > Going away for a while? > Don't forget to UNSUBSCRIBE! > OLD-ENGLISH-L-request@rootsweb.com > >