Posts
 |
| Mouse chewed document |
Note: You can do a Google search for "A Family History Mission James Tanner" to see all the previous posts in this ongoing series. You can also search for "James Tanner genealogy" and find them or click back through all the posts.
One of the first challenges in preparing the documents for digitization was reading the handwriting. The Maryland State Archives has requested that we provide a preliminary index of the records and that includes the primary person or people named in the record and the date of the court filing and some information about the type of record. The documents also need to be unfolded. Most of these documents have never been touched since they were filed in the Maryland State Orphans Court going back into the early 1800s. Here is an example of some of the handwriting challenges. Of course, after almost a year, for me, this looks pretty simple to read.
Thanks to a comment from a reader, I am going to show some of the interesting and somewhat strange documents we have seen during our time digitizing documents at the Maryland State Archives. The first one above is a mouse (or other rodents) chewed document that we ran across recently. Not that I find all these documents, we are currently down one pair of Senior Missionaries, but we have four cameras and a lot of local volunteers preparing and digitizing the documents. Some of these images were made by other missionaries. When we find an interesting, unusual, or strange document, we usually take a photo and many times share the photos with the other Senior Missionaries.
One of the first challenges in preparing the documents for digitization was reading the handwriting. The Maryland State Archives has requested that we provide a preliminary index of the records and that includes the primary person or people named in the record and the date of the court filing and some information about the type of record. The documents also need to be unfolded. Most of these documents have never been touched since they were filed in the Maryland State Orphans Court going back into the early 1800s. Here is an example of some of the handwriting challenges. Of course, after almost a year, for me, this looks pretty simple to read.
But here is a challenging document:
Some of the time, we need to confer with the other missionaries or look up possible names online to see if we can make sense of the documents. In this case, the paper is actually blue.
Here is another type of challenge. The long document. We can't imagine why they did this.
Because these are court documents, many times they needed an official seal. This practice has mostly disappeared, but in the absence of a metal seal, the clerks of the Court got inventive. Here are some examples of seals.
This document is also unreadable, shows a pedigree, and comes from somewhere in Europe.
This is a Notary Seal. We have been doing probate files and before about 1900 there are no notaries the documents were filed under oath and had a certification by the Clerk of the Court.
There are a lot more interesting documents and I will keep posting them from time to time.
Some of the time, we need to confer with the other missionaries or look up possible names online to see if we can make sense of the documents. In this case, the paper is actually blue.
Here is another type of challenge. The long document. We can't imagine why they did this.
Because these are court documents, many times they needed an official seal. This practice has mostly disappeared, but in the absence of a metal seal, the clerks of the Court got inventive. Here are some examples of seals.
This document is also unreadable, shows a pedigree, and comes from somewhere in Europe.
This is a Notary Seal. We have been doing probate files and before about 1900 there are no notaries the documents were filed under oath and had a certification by the Clerk of the Court.
There are a lot more interesting documents and I will keep posting them from time to time.
That pedigree is from Germany, 1876. It shows the Köhler family and it's too small to make out much of it, but it looks like child 3 and child 4 emigrated to America. Anyone who's spent much time with 19th century German records should be able to read a larger copy.
ReplyDelete