I'm Stuck!

We hope you won't ever be stuck! It is possible however that something may not work for you or you may feel as though you have hit a brick wall. Always consider asking fellow transcribers in the forums for assistance – it is very unlikely that your issue will be unique and someone may have found the answer to it before.

Use the search function

The site search function can be useful in finding similar strings of text in other transcriptions. For example if you can decipher a few consecutive letters in a word but not all of them, try putting those into the search function and see what might have already been transcribed

I can't save

There shouldn't be any problems saving your text. Save often so you don't lose anything you have contributed. Please contact us if you are having this issue.

I can't read something

If you can't read something, try comparing it with something you think might be similar. Ask fellow transcribers in the forums if they can help out with the deciphering. If you cannot make any sense, type what you think might be there and put it in square brackets '[' – ']'.

There is a smudge across the record

As some of these records are hundreds of years old they can be smudged, crumpled or damaged. Unfortunately we can't do anything about deficiencies in the original records. Try your best to include as much as possible. otherwise, record what you can in square brackets.