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

Hi Teresa, Thanks for giving me a chance to explain this. There isn't a search engine on the net that will index an image. Just because jpg image has words on it instead of a photo of Uncle Fred doesn't mean the search engine can read it, unfortunately. PDF file images can now be indexed, but there's usually an extra charge by FreeFind, PicoSearch, etc. for the indexing. And technically, a PDF program has already OCRed (optical character recognition) the image of the text, and that indexing is only as good as the PDF's conversion program's OCR was. No OCR program will read handwriting and turn it into text. And if the printed image is bad - say, from microfilm, a bad original copy, etc. - then the OCR program is going to make lots of errors. Here's an example - http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/judyproofers/denise/1919feb11-005.jpg This is an image Denise is typing for Blair Archives. It's a photograph I took of part of an article in my bound volume of 1919 Altoona Tribune newspapers. The newspaper is old, brittle, and darkened, and when I turn the pages, little bits of paper along the edges flake off all over my dining room floor. <g> Please click on the link and take a look at the image before you read on. I used OmniPage Pro 15 OCR program, which is an expensive and excellent program, to turn this image into text, but I didn't proofread the text. What you see below is straight out of the OCR process. Most image to PDF programs don't give you much of a chance to proofread (or most people who convert images to PDF don't proofread; I'm not sure which is the problem), so this is a pretty good likeness of what the unedited text would look like if you just scanned the images and saved to PDF - ------- Pas.ttal, Rennet I LaushIln, Harold Ste- phens. knees Stitt. laenneth Goodman. Sti 7.9; Sarah Machitoatt, 56 7.9; William Whittled. Rd 7.8: Ruth \I Neal, 7.8; Beatrice Olsewhite, Fannie Msg., 169th- or Stauter, Ploreneo McCracken, 31Iriam AfoCk619.11, Helen Tam` t, SC 8.9: Beeler Stulta. 86 4.9; Loula labor, 96 2.9; Porter :Prow, Theodore Shade, Bce. Dixon, von cub, 88 2.S; /eruyeTyn Bunt, Martha Owln, Thelma Stephonn, Edits Smith. Agnes Caaselberry. 96 1.9; Elisabeth Heckman, 86; Harry Denlnar, 88 6.8; William Axton. Prod Berkey, Ralph Boll.r. Cleo. ittenberg, Natnuel White, Pritek Warfel. Herman Chapman. Paul Cried, 56 5.9: Edith liargreavre. Virginia TUZZICY, Vanoeta Russell. 8.6 5.9: Violet Seer, 8S 19; Ruth Adel., Waiter Hite, liattnali Joeeph Cohen, Mildred Luse, Paul Trees, Charles Male, Paul Cehrdett Robert Swayen, in. ------- Not too good, huh? I don't waste my time trying to OCR old newspapers. I'm not a good typist, but I can type faster than I can fix up a mess like the above. Voice recognition programs are getting better, so eventually we may be able to read those handwritten wills into a microphone, and a software program like Dragon Naturally Speaking will turn them into text, but they aren't too good at present, and meanwhile, we've got word processing, which is a lot better than manual or even electric typewriters, and once we get the typed text online, the search engines will have no problem finding any word in the file. But the real point is that here we are - lots of cousins looking up the same will, and keeping the photocopy in our files, or sharing it only with the cousins we already know. It just makes more sense to transcribe the thing once and get it over with, and put it online, so nobody else will have to search the will indexes, write to the courthouse to order the will, pay the fees and the postage, etc. I've said it before and I'll say it again - putting transcriptions of documents online makes excellent cousin-fishing bait, and lets those new cousins know that they've found a cousin who knows how to do research and documents the entries in his or her gedcom. I'll get down off my soapbox now. <grin> Judy ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 3:33 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

Judy some info please. I have the civil war papers of Jeremiah York a g?grandfather (don't remember how many greats LOL) and am trying to do that is there a place when you get it done or just for each county or what.?? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Judy Banja" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 8:01 AM Subject: Re: [PAHUNTIN] Re: Huntingdon County Wills > Hi Teresa, > > Thanks for giving me a chance to explain this. > > There isn't a search engine on the net that will index an image. Just > because > jpg image has words on it instead of a photo of Uncle Fred doesn't mean > the > search engine can read it, unfortunately. PDF file images can now be > indexed, > but there's usually an extra charge by FreeFind, PicoSearch, etc. for the > indexing. And technically, a PDF program has already OCRed (optical > character > recognition) the image of the text, and that indexing is only as good as > the > PDF's conversion program's OCR was. No OCR program will read handwriting > and > turn it into text. And if the printed image is bad - say, from microfilm, > a bad > original copy, etc. - then the OCR program is going to make lots of > errors. > > Here's an example - > http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/judyproofers/denise/1919feb11-005.jpg > This > is an image Denise is typing for Blair Archives. It's a photograph I took > of > part of an article in my bound volume of 1919 Altoona Tribune newspapers. > The > newspaper is old, brittle, and darkened, and when I turn the pages, little > bits > of paper along the edges flake off all over my dining room floor. <g> > Please > click on the link and take a look at the image before you read on. > > I used OmniPage Pro 15 OCR program, which is an expensive and excellent > program, > to turn this image into text, but I didn't proofread the text. What you > see > below is straight out of the OCR process. > > Most image to PDF programs don't give you much of a chance to proofread > (or most > people who convert images to PDF don't proofread; I'm not sure which is > the > problem), so this is a pretty good likeness of what the unedited text > would look > like if you just scanned the images and saved to PDF - > > ------- > Pas.ttal, Rennet I LaushIln, Harold Ste- phens. knees Stitt. laenneth > Goodman. > Sti 7.9; Sarah Machitoatt, 56 7.9; William Whittled. Rd 7.8: Ruth \I Neal, > 7.8; > Beatrice Olsewhite, Fannie Msg., 169th- or Stauter, Ploreneo McCracken, > 31Iriam > AfoCk619.11, Helen Tam` t, SC 8.9: Beeler Stulta. 86 4.9; Loula labor, 96 > 2.9; > Porter :Prow, Theodore Shade, Bce. Dixon, > > von cub, 88 2.S; /eruyeTyn Bunt, Martha Owln, Thelma Stephonn, Edits > Smith. > Agnes Caaselberry. 96 1.9; Elisabeth Heckman, 86; Harry Denlnar, 88 6.8; > William > Axton. Prod Berkey, Ralph Boll.r. Cleo. ittenberg, Natnuel White, Pritek > Warfel. > Herman Chapman. Paul Cried, 56 5.9: Edith liargreavre. Virginia TUZZICY, > Vanoeta > Russell. 8.6 5.9: Violet Seer, 8S 19; Ruth Adel., Waiter Hite, liattnali > > Joeeph Cohen, Mildred Luse, Paul Trees, Charles Male, Paul Cehrdett Robert > Swayen, in. > ------- > > Not too good, huh? I don't waste my time trying to OCR old newspapers. > I'm not > a good typist, but I can type faster than I can fix up a mess like the > above. > > Voice recognition programs are getting better, so eventually we may be > able to > read those handwritten wills into a microphone, and a software program > like > Dragon Naturally Speaking will turn them into text, but they aren't too > good at > present, and meanwhile, we've got word processing, which is a lot better > than > manual or even electric typewriters, and once we get the typed text > online, the > search engines will have no problem finding any word in the file. > > But the real point is that here we are - lots of cousins looking up the > same > will, and keeping the photocopy in our files, or sharing it only with the > cousins we already know. It just makes more sense to transcribe the thing > once > and get it over with, and put it online, so nobody else will have to > search the > will indexes, write to the courthouse to order the will, pay the fees and > the > postage, etc. I've said it before and I'll say it again - putting > transcriptions of documents online makes excellent cousin-fishing bait, > and lets > those new cousins know that they've found a cousin who knows how to do > research > and documents the entries in his or her gedcom. > > I'll get down off my soapbox now. <grin> > > Judy > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 3:33 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 Huntingdon County PAGenWeb Archives at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/huntingdon/ - > it's our digital library. > > ============================== > Jumpstart your genealogy with OneWorldTree. Search not only for > ancestors, but entire generations. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13972/rd.ashx > > >