Whether you go the genealogy or family history route you will have plenty of writing to do, in particular copying from one document to another, or transcribing. As you might imagine, this has particular importance in the very nature of the job, especially when transcribing from original records that you may not see again.

Many of the problems that today’s family history researchers face are concerned with transcription errors on the part of genealogists in the past. I have already mentioned, for example, that we cannot rely totally on databases such as the IGI, and even less on the privately amassed genealogical information posted to the internet. A very large percentage may be accurate, such as perhaps is the case with the IGI and the LDS Family Pedigree databases, but that doesn’t help if yours is the one entry that happens to be wrong.

You need only one error affecting the name you happen to be searching to really mess up your results, and maybe take you down a road of wasted time and effort. ‘Rules’ about transcription, and making and keeping records in general, are not just to produce neat looking reports. They are crucial to the ‘integrity’ of whatever you publish or leave to posterity and, in the long run, to the pleasure you will get out of the hobby.

That said, the few guidelines in this chapter, although no more than common sense, may be worth their weight in parish registers in terms of the time, effort and money that good recording can save you.In a general sense, transcription refers to anything you transfer from one record to another, including keying in data to a proprietry database, such as Microsoft Access, or a proprietary family history program. It may refer, for example, to scribbled notes you got from a distant aunt, either on a visit or over the telephone. In this case, you may not be able to get the information verbatim, so it is important to get facts right – especially names and dates.

As far as possible record what you hear or see written rather than what you expect to see or hear or would like to see or hear.Transcription may also refer to taking extracts, such as from a will you located at a record office. In this case you have to decide what to transcribe – especially from a long document of unknown value – as well as making sure you get it right. If possible take a photocopy, of course.

Deciding what to record comes with experience, although the general rule is to record more rather than less as you can never foresee the value of information some time in the future, in conjunction with other data from other sources.

There is no reason why, however, by following simple guidelines, you should make all your actual transcriptions right from day one. With the exception of seasoned professionals, who probably learnt from hard lessons and unforgiving bosses, few researchers maintain complete objectivity. This especially applies when you are researching your own family, as there may be emotional factors. But you can go a long way towards professionalism and objectivity by simple preparation. For example: With pre-printed sheets you not only have a checklist of the fields you need to complete, but you have no excuse to use bits of paper that are more likely to get lost.

The idea is to make even the most complex transcription task routine and as foolproof as possible.In the case of transcribing from one written document to another, say at a public record office, there are not as many variables as when recording the highly subjective spoken memories of an aged relative or written material in letters or diaries. However, there may be other pressures, and each kind of research has its own caveats.

In a library or record office, time can fly and you may have to rush to beat closing time hoping to avoid another long journey. And that ignores the mesmeric effect of poring over kilometres of hardly legible, microfilmed copies of parish records. We are only human with limited concentration. Most people overestimate the amount of information they will obtain, say in an afternoon, especially when starting off. That applies even when you know that the information is physically available.

Once you get familiar with the ‘system’, using microfiche and microfilm viewers, and the old fashioned style of writing and spelling, your time planning will get better. Otherwise just don’t make a time consuming mistake more than once. The trick, in fact, is simple: start off right and you will establish the right habits. You will soon come to record a certain range of data in a certain way without really thinking about your method. You thus spare your attention for the content – such as spelling and dates, plus little clues about relationships you can easily miss and which add to the fascination of the hobby.

All this advice covers record taking generally, including spoken family reminiscences, which, as we have seen, is where we need to start. However, most of your preliminary work will concern transcribing a known, limited range of data (or fields) from a few kinds of ‘vital’ records, such as parish registers for baptisms, marriages and burials. These recurring transcription tasks will account for a large part of your activity, especially in the early months when you are establishing your main family trees.

A standardised ‘system’ for each main type of record, will therefore repay itself immeasurably. The advice in this chapter covers perhaps 80 per cent of the transcription work you will do, without filling a whole book, which in any case could never address more than a small fraction of the sources out there. For the rest of the more or less unlimited sources, you need to follow the general guidelines in this chapter and rely on good habits created sooner rather than later.