transcription/docs/Intent.md

Historical Document Transcription

I have several thousand pages of family history told through letters, postcards, books, and other documents that I want to transcribe to text.

Goals

1. Preserve our family history
2. Unburden my family (and descendants) from having to store and care for the physical media. Once the documents have been transcribed and organized, they can be donated (or kept by a family member that wants to retain them).
3. Make the text easily available and searchable by family members, as well as AI (which may have different requirements).
4. Ability create timelines or assemble the historical record of the family or specific individuals from across the complete document archive. Perhaps use AI to create the timelines in a more narrative form.

Source material

1. letters, cards, diaries - handwritten; mostly stored in tubs, with little organization
2. books - typed or typeset; mostly self-published books 50-100 pages in length. This may be expanded to include selected pages from other publications.
3. newspaper clippings, event programs, invitations, and other ephemera

Methodology

Verbatim vs. Clean Copy

Transcriptions should be Verbatim and follow scholarly research guidelines, with no modifications to the original text.

Potential Document Issues

Document Issue	How to Handle It	Example
Misspellings & Errors	Retain original spelling and insert italicized [sic] directly after the error.	The weather was very cold and publick [sic] business delayed.
Missing Words / Slips	Insert the missing word inside square brackets to restore basic readability.	We went [to] the store to buy supplies.
Uncertain / Guesswork	Place your best hypothesis followed by a question mark inside square brackets.	He went to [Boston?] yesterday to meet the governor.
Completely Illegible	Use a clear descriptive term like [illegible] or specify the reason (e.g., [torn], [ink blot]).	The total cost was [illegible] dollars. or The letter ends here [remainder of page torn].
Crossed-out Text	Wrap the removed word or phrase in a deleted tag to preserve the author's edits.	We left at [deleted: noon] one o'clock instead.
Squeezed-in Text	Wrap text that was added above the line or in a tight space in an inserted tag.	The [inserted: red] house on the hill was abandoned.
Superscripts & Abbreviations	Bring raised letters down to the main line, or optionally expand them in brackets.	Change Gen^l to Genl OR Change to Gen[era]l depending on project preference.
Images / Seals / Signs	Describe the non-textual element using italicized text inside square brackets.	[wax notary seal attached here] or [sketch of a fort layout]
Marginalia / Notes	Note the spatial transition clearly before transcribing the note itself.	[written in left margin:] Do not share this with anyone.
Line Breaks / Hyphens	Rejoin words split across a page margin silently, dropping the line-break hyphen.	Original: "estab- / lishment" becomes "establishment"
Ambiguous Capitalization	Default to modern capitalization rules unless an archaic uppercase letter is clearly intentional.	If a standard noun like 'Farm' looks randomly capitalized, type 'farm'.
Hierarchical Outlines	Preserve exact numbering characters (including lowercase Roman numerals or terminal 'j'). Replicate indentation levels using spaces/tabs. Do not correct math or sequence errors silently.	I. Main Topic   a. Sub-point   b. Next point III. [sic] Third Topic