My experience with the transcription process was … fine. I didn’t find it easy, but it wasn’t impossible.
Both my documents came from the Freedman’s Bureau collection on North Carolina Field Offices, Subordinate Field Offices: Rocky Mount, Letters Received, Dec. 1865–Aug. 1868, Part 2. The first document I transcribed made a lot of sense to me. I could read most of the words – or could I infer what the author was saying if I couldn’t quite read a word at first.
The second document I transcribed was a little more frustrating as I understood some key words, but there were a fair number of other words I really couldn’t pick up on due to the author’s handwriting style.
After completing two letters myself and passing over a number of other documents I found too hard to transcribe, I would imagine it would take years for crowdsourced transcription projects to be completed.
Hi Alexandra! Project you transcribed looks very difficult and hard to understand. I’m glad you didn’t find it too hard.
Hey Alexandra! I also went through several documents before finding a document I could actually transcribe; I had no idea that it would be so hard and be such a daunting process either, haha
Hey Alexandra, I totally can relate haha. But yeah like you said, it was hard but not impossible. But it was fun type of hard, because it didn’t feel like the end of the world if you made a mistake yet it felt good to decipher it.
Hi, Alexandra! I agree that some of these notes and letters were very hard to read. Overall, I enjoyed the process, but trying to decipher the words could be tedious and an incredibly long process. I bet when these people wrote the letter, they never thought people 200 years int the future would be scrutinizing every letter.
Hi Alexandra! I had the same problem trying to find documents that I could actually transcribe. I found the assignment hard but I also did not find it impossible and I thought it was interesting.