DELAWARE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

Delaware Tax Transcription Project

Examples from Tax Lists and Transcription Notes

Several Additional Notes on Transcribing: see below

Useful Links
Reading handwriting from old records often requires interpreting how the same letter is formed at other places in the same document. It is also useful to consult:
Reading Early American Handwriting (June 1998) by Kip Sperry (available from Amazon.com) and Understanding Colonial Handwriting (1980) by Harriet Stryker-Rodda (available from Amazon.com)
Colonial Alphabets and Deciphering Old Handwriting by Sabina J. Murray,

Common Column Categories
First and Middle names
Surname
Suffix = Junior, Senior, Jr, jun^r, etc. [type exactly as written in original list.]
Tax assessed and/or collected [could be more than one column]
Notes = Esquire, Estate, Dr, Taylor, Land, abbreviations of more lengthy comments [see abbreviations and other comments below]

Some Examples of Transcriptions [images from Delaware Public Archives microfilms RG 2535, 3535, 4535, 4200]
from 1787 Broad Creek hundred Tax in Sussex County Book

John Creighton L^d	 3
Joseph Cannon Ju^r	12
Benjamin Clifton	 2

These would be entered as follows:

Given Name 	Surname		Suffix	Tax	Notes
------------  	------- 	------	---	----------------------------------------
John 		Creighton 		 3	L^d
Joseph 		Cannon 		Ju^r	12
Benjamin 	Clifton			 2

from 1795 North West Fork hundred Tax List

William N. Cannon		5
ditto for Jesse Cannon^s Heirs	3

This last line would be expanded to two lines:

Given Name 	Surname	Suffix	Tax  x	Notes
------------  	------- ------	---  -	----------------------------------------
William N. 	Cannon		5
William N. 	Cannon		3	ditto for Jesse Cannon^s Heirs
Jesse 		Cannon^s 	3    x	William N. Cannon for Heirs of

* Note that the first "s" in Jesse looks somewhat like an "f"
* The "x" indicates that the line does not appear in the original tax list.

from 1788 Murderkill hundred Tax List

        Free Negroes
     Jinkins Calib	2
     Purdons Bob	3
     George Jeffery's	3
     Peter Bukett	2




These would be entered as follows:


Given Name 	Surname	Suffix	Tax	Race	Notes
------------  	------- ------	---	----	----------------------
Calib	 	Jinkins* 	2	NF	as Jinkins Calib	
Bob	 	Purdons* 	3	NF	as Purdons Bob	
George 		Jeffery^s 	3	NF
Peter 		Bukett	  	2	NF

from 1795 North West Fork hundred Tax List

Henrey Smith and William }
Boness Exetors for James }	6
Lowrey, Land		 }
Levin Lewis^s Land			10

This would be entered as follows 
[The first 3 lines would be converted to three different lines]:

				Tax  Tax
Given Name 	Surname	Suffix 	 £    S   x  Notes
------------  	------- ------	---  ---  - ---------------------------------------
James	 	Lowrey		6            Land; Henrey Smith and William Boness Exetors for
Henrey 		Smith 		6         x  with William Boness, Exetors for James Lowrey, Land
William  	Boness		6         x  with Henrey Smith, Exetors for James Lowrey, Land
Levin 		Lewis^s 	     10	     Land

from 1787 New Castle County Tax Book

Estates in NewCastle Hundred
Richard M^cWilliam's	120	13
Slator Clay's		 40	 4	6	8
William Blackburn's	 12	 1	6
Peter Jaquet's Longhook	 20	 2	3	4




These would be entered as follows:
				Tax  Tax Tax Tax
Given Name 	Surname	Suffix 	 £    £   S   p	Notes
------------  	------- ------	---  --- --  --	----------------------------------------
Richard 	M^cWilliam's	120  13		Estate in NewCastle Hundred
Slator 		Clay's		 40   4   6   8	Estate in NewCastle Hundred
William 	Blackburn's	 12   1   6	Estate in NewCastle Hundred
Peter 		Jaquet's 	 20   2   3   4	Longhook Estate in NewCastle Hundred

* Add "Estate in NewCastle Hundred" to each entry in the "Notes" section.

from 1788 Nanticoke Tax List



Nanticoke
Rates 1788
George aDams	12
John aDams	 2
William aDams	 2
Jacob aDams	 1
Isaac aDams	 1
Alexander Argoe	 2
William Anderson 1






These would be entered as follows:

Nanticoke Rates 1788 [put in only one cell and allow to word wrap]
				Tax
Given Name 	Surname	Suffix 	 £ 	Notes
------------  	------- ------	---	----------------------------------------
George 		aDams		12
John 		aDams	 	 2
William 	aDams		 2
Jacob 		aDams		 1
Isaac 		aDams		 1
Alexander 	Argoe		 2
William 	Anderson	 1

* an "8" is often on its side
* transcribe as written, even if non-traditional, such as "aDams"
* The "x" in "Alexander" often written like that
* The "r" in "Anderson" often written like that

Setting Up Your Spreadsheet

In some cases, a "page" on the microfilm was too big to fit on a page of paper when making copies. In these cases, two or more paper copies were made for each microfilm page and you need to be aware of not duplicating your work. [When copying these tax lists from the microfilms, every effort was made to increase legibility of faint lines; nonetheless, reading these lists directly from the microfilm with a zoomed lens is preferable. We will do this later to settle differences in transcriptions of difficult to read letters and numbers, so don't worry too much about that now.]

For all transcriptions, repeat exactly the way it is written in the original, even if the word or name is obviously spelled wrong. Use lower case where the writer used lower case.

In the first line of your spreadsheet or document, type the name of the hundred and the year of the tax list, then type your own name.

Please type any descriptive or other words at the beginning and/or the end of each list. If using a spreadsheet, type these words into one cell using word wrap, if possible.

When transcribing from a county's bound book, skip a line after all the entries in each hundred, enter the name of the next hundred on the next line, then start the entries on the following line.

For any specific tax list, use the same number of columns for every entry. The number of columns will vary from list to list.

You do not need to type in the hundred name and date in every entry as we will add those in an additional column later.

If there is no number in the tax assessed and/or collected column, you should leave it blank instead of entering a zero.

Keep all entries in their original order - do not alphabetize. We will generate a separate alphabetized list later.

The Actual Transcribing: Reading the Handwriting

We want to keep question marks out of our final published product, if possible. If you are truly unsure about your transcription, take your best guess, then add a question mark at the end of that word. If a letter is uncertain try to compare it with other letters written by the same list (usually the same hand). Also, remember that Colonial writing was slightly different than today; for example, an "s" often looked more like an "f" so Jesse might look like Jefse.

For superscripts, indicate by using a caret; e.g. jun^r, W^m

Do not put a period after an abbreviation even if there is a period in the original, e.g. type Esq or Esq^r for Esquire and Jr and Jun^r for Junior. If we do this consistently, then computer matching won't highlight these entries.

Many times, names often are followed by an apostrophe "s" (e.g. Estates, Land) which should be included with the surname. If there is no apostrophe, don't add one.

Type numbers as they appear. If there are separate numbers (such as British pounds and British shillings) type them in separate columns. If a zero, type a zero. If no number appears in a column leave that cell blank (in Excel or Lotus 1,2,3) or add an extra tab if typing in a word processor (WordPerfect, Word, etc). In some lists, there is only one number. In other lists, there may be a total of four or more columns of numbers; e.g.
1. the total valuation in British pounds
2. tax assessed (in British pounds, shillings and pence) all in separate columns.
Some years (e.g. 1797 Appoquinimink) a very detailed list survives which has even 16 columns including such categories as # acres, buildings and improvements, number of slaves of various age groups, sometimes even the name and age of each slave (e.g. 1816 White Clay Creek)

Include names that are crossed out and enter "Xd" in the "Notes" column.

Abbreviations: particularly in the "Notes" column
You do not need to abbreviate unless the original record is an abbreviation. It is perfectly OK to type the words as they appear in the original. We will add abbreviations later, if needed. But you can use some common abbreviations that we used in the "Delaware - 1782 Tax Assessment and Census Lists" are
"Est oth hds" use for all listings in category "Estates in Other Hundreds"
"EstStGeor" use for all listings in category "Estate in St Georges Hundred"
"Minor's Ld" = Minor's Land
"Xd no tax" is used if the name is crossed out and no tax is listed.
Some comments will be unique to a certain individual on the list. In these cases, we will simply refer in the "Notes" column (using terms such as Dover88-1, LtCrSX00-3) to a "Miscellaneous Notes" section where the entire comment will appear it is in the original record. This term will be a 6-letter hundred abbreviation with the year of the list attached to the end, then followed by -1, -2, etc.



© Delaware Genealogical Society -- July 3, 2010 -- delgensoc.org