Hunting History: Local Residents Asked to Help ‘Transcribe NC’
Thousands of documents need to be transcribed in NC Archive
DOBSON-In 1896, there was a measles epidemic in Surry County. Before being cured, it spread to 16 nearby counties and created a number of problems. We know about this thanks to the notes from the North Carolina Board of Health’s 1897 meeting. Those notes, along with thousands of other documents from this region, are now at the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. But while some of the documents are online, they haven’t been transcribed yet. That’s something department officials hope to change with help.
“There are a lot of digital collections here that could be helpful to people,” said Anna Peitzman, an archivist with the North Carolina Archives. “It could help educators, researchers or people searching for their family’s genealogy.”
But again, the key word is could. Until they’re transcribed, it can be challenging to hunt down the specific pages you need. Department officials hope to find volunteers willing to help fix that, to go through draft lists from World War I and even 19th century travel diaries, which detail trips overseas taken by local residents.
This is something you could do while in quarantine, as all you need is a laptop, tablet or some other way to access the department’s website. Then it’s just a case of reading the handwriting and typing it up.
“There are a lot of typed pages needing to be transcribed,” Peitzman said. “There are World War I letters, World War II letters, medical journals and we’re working on a project about early African American education. For every page you transcribe, you write what you see.”
For example, if you decide to work on the “Travel Perspectives” collection, you’d be sorting through digital versions of 19th and some early 20th century letters, scrapbooks, postcards, journals and photographs, documenting what’s written on each one.
A Simple Signup
It’s easy to sign up. First you go to this page. Then you simply come up with a username, password and an email address. It’s just like setting up your Facebook or Instagram profile. Also, if you don’t have any experience with transcribing, that’s ok. Peitzman said Archives staff will help out.
“We can help you learn how to read handwriting and there’s a couple different transcription guides on the site, to walk you through questions,” Peitzman said.
Even after all of these documents get transcribed, there are still thousands more waiting to be uploaded. Peitzman said that soon the NC Archive will have some early General Assembly material to transcribe, as well as pieces from colonial court records.
“We’re definitely still doing sections, as it takes time to digitize materials,” Peitzman said. “While the full archive isn’t uploaded yet, this is another step in that direction.”
For anyone interested, you can go to the Transcribe NC page here once you sign up. There you’ll find instructions and tips on how to transcribe. There’s also an instructional video if it’s easier for you to understand things visually.
