Taxation Records

1. Where should I enter the writing at the top of the page?
This should be entered in the 'Transcribe other information' field, along with anything else found at the bottom or in the margins.

2. I cannot decipher a name, place, occupation etc.
There are a number of ways to look for help, for place names you can keep the index page open in the OS Book for the Parish you are working on, the names may appear in different tax rolls, or in other years, use the maps on the NLS site or Vision of Britain, (don’t forget the names may differ in spelling slightly.) With the names of the owners, look at the other Tax Rolls, farmers may also have Dogs or Carts, or you can look up the person on the Family Search site or Google them. 

3. How do I enter abbreviated forenames?
Enter the forename in full, it does not have to be expanded in brackets. E.g Alex = Alexander; Wm = William

4. How do I enter abbreviations?
The abbreviation should be entered followed by the word in full in square brackets. E.g. Min. [Minister] Vint. [Vintner]. Dr. [Doctor] Abbreviations that do NOT need to be expanded are Mr; Mrs; Messrs; Esq. and ‘do’

5. In the Master/Mistress field there is also the name of a place and their occupation, do I need to transcribe all of it?
Yes everything on the line should be transcribed.

6. How do I enter the Duty?
The Duty should be entered as £.s.d, and where applicable the ½ penny. e.g. £.1.6.5 1/2
Do not use ‘/’ to separate shillings and pence or ‘.5’ (point 5) for the half penny.

7. What do I do if the Surveyor has made an error with the figures?
If you do notice an error, then transcribe it as it is, you can put a note on for the reader to see but usually when these books were examined the error is picked up and the Surveyor/clerk puts a note in the proof.

8. Do I need to enter the Parish names and Totals?
Yes you do, these should be entered the same as any other line.

9. In some years there is another column after the Duty column, how do I enter this?
This column was for a further Tax, found in all Tax Rolls in later years, known as the 10 or 20% George III, This is entered as £.s.d and a fourth place which is a tenth of a penny. So this would be entered as e.g. £0.1.9.6 or £0.0.10.8. Sometimes the last figures are lost in the fold of the book, in this case you can either work them out or copy from other pages.

10. What do I do when there is a ‘ditto’ ; ‘do’ or ‘there’?
In this case enter the applicable word/words from the line above, ‘there’ is used frequently when referring to the name of a place. You do not enter there; do or ditto.

11. How do I enter the dates?
All dates should be entered as (D)D MMM YYYY. throughout. E.g. 17 Oct 1797, 7 Oct 1797. If the Surveyor has only entered the day, look at the preceding/following date for the month, the year is usually given beside the Parish, if not you can discern this from the Volume header, it can only be one of two years.

12. I can not read the last column because of the fold on the page, what do I do?
If the last figures are lost in the fold you can usually work out what it should be by either simple arithmetic or copying from other pages.

13. I have missed a line out, how do I enter it?
Enter the line as normal, it will appear at the bottom, you can then use the arrow buttons to move that entry up or down.

14. Do I need to enter 0's in columns that have nothing entered?
The answer to this is NO, Do NOT enter anything where columns have been left blank or have been filled by dots, dashes or squiggles. However if there are dashes or ditto's in in the duty field these should have 0 entered.

15. The Place Name has been abbreviated, how should this be transcribed?
Where the place name is abbreviated it should be expanded in square brackets, following the normal convention. i.e. Ft. Wm. [Fort William]

16. How do I enter the Proof?
There is no right or wrong way for these to be entered. Some are clearly more suited to be entered into the record, which in some cases the surveyor has done quite neatly. Others which have been written as part of the the Surveyors Declaration and not confined to the lines of the record are more suited to be entered in the Extra Info. field with the declaration.

17. Do I enter accents?
The answer is yes, any accents that appear on the original image should be entered as seen in the transcription. There are Alt codes for most of these or you may prefer to make up a word doc and copy and paste.

18. Do I need to enter anything for Blank Pages?
Make sure the page is blank by scrolling down to the bottom, many pages have a page number or maybe a title in the middle of the page, this needs to be entered. If the page is blank just enter [Blank Page] in Continued extras with the page number if there is one.
See approved transcription examples.