This caught my eye and I have to agree. I have had 2 experiences in my years of research that I was looking for a child, and the transcribed copy did not name the children, but the handwritten one did. Because, the transcriber wasn't familiar with the names 'Increase' and 'Jabesh', and they had transcribed the name Increase with something else completely, not even a name, and the Jabesh was transcribed Joseph. I never would have found them if I hadn't insisted on a copy of the original handwritten one. The county courthouses don't think we can read the old writing, but I do and will. I would rather see the original. I know sometimes they are faint, but I have gotten the copies to look pretty good after xeroxing them a couple of times on darker settings and maybe even enlarging a little. Just my 2 cents worth. Thanks, Kathy Wells. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 2:33 AM Subject: Re: [PAHUNTIN] Re: Huntingdon County Wills > Judy, > I have a question: > > Why do the Wills, Deeds and the like need to be transcribed? Is it > possible > to scan the originals and submit them that way? > > Thanks, > Teresa Shade Meltzer > > > ==== PAHUNTIN Mailing List ==== > Visit the Huntingdon county PaGenWeb site at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~pahuntin for information on county resources, > cemeteries and other research information. > > ============================== > Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the > last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx > >

Kathy, I'm not saying we shouldn't scan the wills and put the images online, TOO. Just that we need a transcription for the indexing programs. I agree wholeheartedly about misreading names. June Weston has been going through the cemetery books after we've photographed the tombstones in Blair county cemeteries, and making annotations and corrections and additions. You'd be surprised how many changes there are. And handwriting's even worse than tombstone inscriptions! Used to be we couldn't put images in the Archives. Now we can upload tombstone pix, photos of deceased people, handwritten documents, etc. BUT we have to have a transcription of everything for the search engine. Folks send me obit scans all the time, and I have to break the bad news to them that they have to type what's on the scan. :- ( Judy ----- Original Message ----- From: "David & Kathy Wells" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 11:16 AM Subject: Re: [PAHUNTIN] Re: Huntingdon County Wills This caught my eye and I have to agree. I have had 2 experiences in my years of research that I was looking for a child, and the transcribed copy did not name the children, but the handwritten one did. Because, the transcriber wasn't familiar with the names 'Increase' and 'Jabesh', and they had transcribed the name Increase with something else completely, not even a name, and the Jabesh was transcribed Joseph. I never would have found them if I hadn't insisted on a copy of the original handwritten one. The county courthouses don't think we can read the old writing, but I do and will. I would rather see the original. I know sometimes they are faint, but I have gotten the copies to look pretty good after xeroxing them a couple of times on darker settings and maybe even enlarging a little. Just my 2 cents worth. Thanks, Kathy Wells. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 2:33 AM Subject: Re: [PAHUNTIN] Re: Huntingdon County Wills > Judy, > I have a question: > > Why do the Wills, Deeds and the like need to be transcribed? Is it > possible > to scan the originals and submit them that way? > > Thanks, > Teresa Shade Meltzer > > > ==== PAHUNTIN Mailing List ==== > Visit the Huntingdon county PaGenWeb site at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~pahuntin for information on county resources, > cemeteries and other research information. > > ============================== > Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the > last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx > > ==== PAHUNTIN Mailing List ==== Visit the Huntingdon county PaGenWeb site at http://www.rootsweb.com/~pahuntin for information on county resources, cemeteries and other research information. ============================== Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx