Abstracting and Transcribing Genealogical Documents

Abstracting and transcribing Genealogical documents is very important and sometimes crucial. You always want to verify your sources and what better way than finding an original document and either abstracting or transcribing it. Not to mention that things you will find when taking the time to read the documents, are priceless.

As you may have already noticed I do a lot of transcribing and the following listed resources were fundamental to helping me decipher those old handwritten documents.

I do not intend nor will I do a tutorial on how or the importance of Abstracting & Transcribing Genealogical Documents but I will point you in the right direction, just follow these steps:

First

• Read Kimberly Powell’s article in about.com where she explains the importance of Abstracting & Transcribing Genealogical Documents. She also explains what each is and its role in genealogy.

Second

• Read and use, Spanish Records Extraction – An Instructional Guide from byu.edu.

Finally

• Use Transcript 2.3 or Genscriber depending on your needs, both are free for personal non commercial use. Lately I have just been using Transcript since it helps me get the job done.

Remember always add your abstracts or transcriptions to your genealogical database. i also attach a copy of the image and make sure that I cite it properly for future reference. I hope that this helps you out. Any suggestions on this subject please let me know.