Transcription/Translation

Have you discovered documents in your family history research that you would like translating or explaining?   Would you like to discover documents that would tell you more than the bare names and dates of your ancestors?  Peter Foden of Ancestrography can help you.

 Wills are usually written in English, but “Bastard” or “Secretary” handwriting can pose problems in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Earlier wills can tell you a lot about your ancestors’ attitudes and religious beliefs as well as their economic circumstances and communities to which they belonged – “kith and kin”.

 Probate inventories survive in English as well, and sometimes show the layout of your ancestors’ homes as well as their material prosperity. Handwriting can be difficult to read, and is often peppered with obscure obsolete or dialect words.

 Manorial records were usually in Latin until 1733. They can tell you about roles taken by your ancestors in their communities – constables, haywards, pinders, waywardens, headburrows or tithingmen – as well as their misdemeanours and squabbles with their neighbours. Suit rolls can sometimes help you discover when ancestors moved in or out of a community. If your ancestors were copyholders, you may be able to find out about their property, purchase and inheritance; sometimes an entire family tree can be worked out from manorial records alone (and court rolls often extend back well beyond the start of parish registers).

 Title deeds survive in plenty in local archives; if your ancestors are recorded in extant deeds you may be able to uncover their changing fortunes, and (from family settlements) the lifecycle of the family including matchmaking, retirement and how they lived with the in-laws. Some deeds appear utterly incomprehensible: “final concords” and “common recoveries” written in court hands that might as well be Chinese, and even if you have a translation, what does it really mean anyway?

 “Bawdy court” records might shock you. Here you may find out just what your distant ancestors got up to and with whom in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These courts were run by the church at a time when the church was concerned with sex and marriage, slander, and inheritance, as well as religious beliefs. They are often written in a mixture of abbreviated Latin and very down-to-earth English.  

Send an e-mail to Peter Foden at enquiries@ancestrography.co.uk to request his help translating, transcribing or explaining your family history documents.

If you'd like Peter's help
with your project, click here to start discussing scope, objectives and budget.

We now accept international payments via Paypal.