generated from john/python-template
1.4 KiB
1.4 KiB
Historical Document Transcription Design Intent
I have several thousand pages of family history told through letters, postcards, books, and other documents that I want to transcribe to text.
Goals
- Preserve our family history
- 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 and preserve them).
- Make the document text easily available and easily searchable.
- Ability create timelines for individuals and/or families through document dates or the data contained in them. Perhaps even use AI to generate biographies or family histories.
Source material
- letters, cards, diaries - handwritten; mostly stored in boxes and tubs with little organization
- books - typed or typeset; mostly self-published books 50-100 pages in length. This may be expanded to include selected pages from other publications.
- photos - notes written on the backs of photos and the pages of photo albums
- other ephemera - newspaper clippings, event programs, invitations, military records, immigration records, etc
Methodology
- Follow current best practices per A Guide to Documentary Editing by Mary-Jo Kline. (See Transcription Methodology)