What is Palaeography, you ask?

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It is the study of script and handwriting (cursive writing) from several centuries ago. I've taken several courses to help hone my skills, as well as use my artistic background to see lines and shapes and discern what each word could be. But it is more than just knowing a particular word, as sometimes records are written in other languages (frequently Latin) and may have 'Olde' spellings.

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Even if a particular name or word is spelled correctly in one record, many times names will be spelled "how the priest hears it" - as in the case with many records I've transcribed from emigrants from Ireland and Germany who landed in French Canada. Literacy and accuracy are wishful things, but not always the case. Names become Anglicized or made to sound "French" even though names were German. So Franz becomes Francois and Frank on records, even though it is the same individual. It all depends on where they are living.

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I have transcribed records written in Latin, Old English, French, German, Swedish, Irish and Scots Gaelic, and Welsh.

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As you navigate through the surnames and reports I have posted (including the sample reports) you will find images which may be difficult to read. Next to them I have included a transcription and in some cases a translation if it is in a foreign language.

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As a volunteer, I am currently helping the Manchester & Salford Family History Society with transcription of church records from the early 18th and 19th centuries.