Grabbing the knowledge in documents

I was looking at some old document copies today. I can’t decipher all of the words as I carefully transcribe it into a nice typed document. I need to use some of my proven methods for figuring out what it says:

Put it way for a while
Try to read it away from your home or the library where you copied it
Give it to another genealogist to decipher (don’t tell them what you think it is)
Give it to a non-genealogist to decipher (don’t tell them what you think it is)
Yes, I have already compared the letter and word formation with others on that page and a few pages before and after

9 times out of 10 one of these methods works. When it doesn’t I tend to lecture myself that I should be able to figure this out. My youngest son can figure out what things say in a variety of languages so I should be able to read something in English, no matter the era!

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2 comments on “Grabbing the knowledge in documents”

Another option is your friendly pharmacist or laboratory scientist. As a public health microbiologist who has spent 25 years reading doctors’ handwriting.