Transcribing English wills 1540-1790

[Bookbox]

Anyone interested in helping Exeter University to transcribe 25,000 wills from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) wills registers might like to look at this brand-new Zooniverse project ...

https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/hjsmith/the-material-culture-of-wills-england-1540-1790

If you're lacking confidence and/or would like to improve your transcribing skills, there are tutorials and a field guide to help, as well as a Talk page where you can ask questions (and get answers).

Enjoy.

[goldie61]

This looks really interesting Bookbox.

I like the fact that you only have to transcribe a few words at a time from different texts, so you could spend just 5 minutes if you want to, or longer, depending on how much time you want to give.
Also there's a section you can do where you're not working from scratch - just correcting the transcription that HTR has produced.
And as they're from the PCC, you generally don't get all those weird and wonderful different scripts you find in locally written wills.

Thanks for posting.

[Bookbox]

Glad you're enjoying it goldie61. It's useful for refreshing transcription skills, and as a way of getting some regular practice with small pieces of text. I've spotted a few other RootsChatters on there too.

[Vance Mead]

Hi Bookbox. That does look interesting, especially that the initial transcriptions are machine-generated. Will there be a database of completed transcriptions? Is one purpose of the project to train the computers to improve their transcriptions?

I'm interested in the project, especially the machine-generated transcription, but my dance card is full.

[Bookbox]

Hi Vance,

This is a prestigious 4-year project, jointly run by Exeter University and the UK National Archives and funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Yes, a database of free-to-access completed transcriptions will be available online at the end of the project. This is, of course, not the entire collection of PCC wills held at TNA, but a sample of 25,000, drawn from the period 1540-1790.

The project team and some so-called 'expert' volunteers have been training the HTR model over the last 8 months, prior to the launch earlier this week of the Zooniverse phase. The HTR model is still learning.

Training the HTR model is not in itself the project's objective - it's a means to an end. There is a lot of background information on the Project Website 'The Material Culture of Wills, England, 1540-1790', with a regular blog, and contact details for the project team, if you want them.

https://sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcultureofwills/about/