Abbreviation of ‘er’, ‘ur’, ‘or’ is used quite often in old wills and parish records. They are mostly an upward sweeping hook or a zigzag superscript character.
Examples of the zigzag:
‘Butter’ from the 17th century.
‘Manner’ from the year 1646.
Examples of the upward sweeping hook:
Once again we have the word ‘manner’ which can be transcribed as ‘mann~’ , ‘mann(er)’ or ‘manner’.
This word from 1683 is ‘every’, likewise transcribed as ‘ev~y’, ‘ev(er)y’ or ‘every’. Consistency is important in transcribing. However, using italics in these cases may not be as good. Sometimes when you copy and paste, some of the letter format is lost.
A combination abbreviated word with a superscript ‘t’ and the ‘er’:
Here is the word ‘whatsoever’ also from 1683, transcribed as ‘wtsoev~’, ‘w(ha)tsoev(er)’ or ‘whatsoever’.
Content of the surrounding words is also important to determining the actual word.
When p~using an old will or lett~, you will s~prise y~self when you discov~ your first ‘er’ word.
Word of the Week:
Fyrth = Forrest
1 comment:
Be sure and don't make any (errors )when transcribing or the (errors ) will stand out. This case it would sound like a (rore) of a lion or somthing else.
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