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Download sample files and help sheets from the following links
(click Save not Open). Each help file contains duplicated general
points, as well as help for specific record types.
FAQs - Other Help for Transcribers
Early Records
There is some help available for transcribing early
records - see this page. In connection
with this, please note the following in particular
- What appears to be fs, is the old character for
double s.
- A capital F usually looks like the modern double
f.
- Care is needed with most vowels, as it's often
difficult to tell the difference between o and e, a and u.
- Similarly, it's also easy to confuse u, v and w
(that's why w has its current name), M and W.
- A character known as thorn, looking like a
modern day y but pronounced th, is often found as part of the word
the (i.e. as ye).
- For pre-1754 records please use the year as
shown in the register. That was the time when the UK officially
adopted the modern Gregorian calendar with the year beginning in
January, instead of the previously used Julian calendar when the
year began on 25 March. This is important, even if it indicates
anomalies such as a woman dying in January 1678 but giving birth in
November of the same year.
It's doubly important as there tended to be dual use of both
calendars (New Year's Day was celebrated on 1 January by many, even
before 1754) and some clerics used the new style long before the
official changeover.
For Regnal Years see this page.
Place Names
The Nearby Places links on Ian Argall's Cornwall
GenUKI pages are often very useful in deciphering the names of villages,
hamlets, farms and groups of cottages. Go to http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Cornwall/indexpars.html,
select the relevant parish and click on Nearby Places at the top of the
page. However, please use the spelling given in the original document.
Instructions on
how to change the size of a spreadsheet window, so that
image software can be seen 'behind' it. (Makes it easier to
transcribe from one to the other.)
If you would like to
contribute your transcriptions, please send them to
Bill O'Reilly or Myra Cordrey.
Please let us know of any broken links.
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