Working with Frakturs
14 June 2014
German "frakturs"—i.e., illuminated certificates of births, baptisms, and marriages—were originally commissioned by families to commemorate events and were prized as both art and family record. When using an original fraktur ...
EE
Sat, 06/14/2014 - 07:00
13 June 2014
Lagniappe. The term means "a little gift" or "a little something extra"—its contents unpredictable but delightful. Today, EE's lagniappe is a handful of our own favorite sites whose riches may help you in your research. ...
12 June 2014
So you don't care about Mr. Merchant? Study him anyway. Ditto for Mr. Lawyer, Miss Teacher, Dr. Whoever, the Rev. Mr. Anybody, and Widow DoGood. Many of these community members were "unofficial record-keepers." When their records ...
Peter-pence, Poll-money, and Poll-tax:
11 June 2014
A tax on one's very existence? Yes, indeed, such taxes were common in the past. Regardless of social or economic status, taxation was a burden that every free person was expected to share. Today's terms cover three of those tax types that have fallen from disfavor ...
EE
Wed, 06/11/2014 - 07:00
10 June 2014
The basic question to answer is this: To whom, exactly, would the correction matter? That said, there's another issue to consider: ...
10 June 2014
You've just read a monograph or an online publication by a well-respected author. Amid a discussion of an event, situation, or social perspective, the author has grievously erred, in your opinion. You have ...
9 June 2014
When citing a rural cemetery, you will want to include directions for locating it, unless you have already done so in your text. Typically, these directions will reference the ...
Exclamation Points
8 June 2014
We do love our exclamation points. They are so expressive. They can show delight or frustration. They show surprise, or shock, or incredulity. We can make our feelings even more obvious by using ...
EE
Sun, 06/08/2014 - 08:10
7 June 2014
We've all had these problems. We're at the website of a company that offers digital images of U.S. government documents. Our image-of-interest is said to come from, say, a National Archives microfilm publication. Then we're given a roll number that cannot possibly belong to that publisher or publication ...
Great Tutorials—Analyzing Historical Documents
6 June 2014
"Documents are liars," according to Lawrence of Arabia. Certainly, they can deceive us—even when the creator did not intend to be deceptive. So, how do we get within reasonable distance of reality, when we peer into the past through so many warped lenses? ...
EE
Fri, 06/06/2014 - 07:00
