I've always used square brackets to designate "my interpretation." I took a paleography class in which the instructor explained, "It is important for researchers to transcribe documents and include abbreviations, capitalization, punctuation, original spellings, and marginal additions exactly as they appear in the original. It is acceptable and recommended that you place your interpretation or explanation within square brackets [ ], not parentheses, or use footnotes."
So, whenever I cannot read the complete word, or if I am using my "best guess" to transcribe a word, I will use the square brackets. Thanks, Geoff Rasmussen Millennia Corporation [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.LegacyFamilyTree.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Peter Chalmers Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 2:19 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [LegacyUG] Entering uncertain information [was: Three questions] As we're discussing "standard" ways of entering things, how do people enter information (other than dates) that they're not sure about? For example, I'm busy going through census entries and adding them to Legacy. In a number of cases, either the given name or a middle initial is not easily readable and I have to make a "best guess". Sometimes it is corroborated elsewhere later, sometimes it isn't. At the moment, in order to mark the fact that I'm not very confident about a name I enclose it in angle brackets e.g. "John <B.> Smith" - but I'm sure this'll have some disadvantages that I won't find out about until I've got hundreds of them to change :-)! Any views? Thanks, Pete C. Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to Salt Lake's Family History Library. Open to users of Legacy 6 Deluxe. Enter online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp Enter the drawing for a FREE Legacy Cruise to Alaska or a FREE research trip to Salt Lake's Family History Library. Open to users of Legacy 6 Deluxe. Enter online at http://legacyfamilytree.com/FreeTrip.asp Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
