Gobbledygook

[SandySandilands]

I having problems reading an old will from 1681:

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb4 ... ngshaw.jpg

I would be very grateful if anyone here could give me some pointers to help in deciphering it. There are 2 pages in all and it's driving me nutty. I'm hopeful this is the document which will answer my prayers [-o< and help knock down my brick wall.

Fingers crossed
Sandy

[Russell]

Hi Sandy
I'm not surprised you are having difficulty since it is in the old Scots script, full of legal terms and further compounded by the bleed off from the text on the opposite page. It may need a program which enlarges the text a bit more than photobucket permits and allows some manipulation of the text. ~the combined efforts of a few of our members have managed to decipher a few testament dative from around this period.

Russell

[LesleyB]

Hi Sandy & Russell
I've not much hope of reading secretary hand at that size - as Russell suggests, you'd really need to be alble to enlarge it a bit more to make out all the text. It is a testament dative and inventory by the look of the first line, " of the goods and debts pertaining to Umq[hile] (i.e. the deceased) Wm?? (William?) Sandilands"

The Scottish handwriting site should be of some help to you:
http://www.scottishhandwriting.com/

Best wishes
Lesley

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings.

I was able to copy and paste the photobucket image to an old photo editing programme on my computer, and then was able to increase the size by 300% so that the image filled my computer screen.

It really needs someone more competent than I, to then tweak the resolution/contrast etc, to try and wash out some of the extraneous rubbish. But someone with knowledge of the old legal language should be able to assist, even from the level of clarity that I managed to get. I've seen it done before on this and other sites.

Alan SHARP.

[LesleyB]

Hi Alan

I was able to copy and paste the photobucket image to an old photo editing programme on my computer, and then was able to increase the size by 300% so that the image filled my computer screen.

What is really needed is an image at a higher resolution. Just increasing the size (i.e. usign a zoom feature) leads to a very pixelated image which does not make reading the secretary hand any easier really.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings Leslie.

I do not disagree that a higher resolution image, if the site will allow uploading would help, but that is why I tried to see if the image supplied would multiply, and on my programme it did. By increasing it 300% it printed out nicely on an A4 sheet of paper at 200 dpi. It did not go all squares and blotchy in the photo edit programme.

The only problem being I'm not good at using the photo editing controlls to clean up the image to get a better contrast, if that is the correct term. I can quite clearly make out the name SANDILANDS in several places a Wm and possibly a John, 6 young foals ? and several dates, but have no knowledge of the legal words I should be looking for in a document dated in the 1680's. The ones I've looked at previously were NZ ones in the 1880's.

Alan SHARP.

[SandySandilands]

Thank you.

I've downloaded IrfranView which is marvelous and enlarges it nicely Problem is I don't "read" the language

It's the will of one William Sandilands who was, up until that point in time, living only 5 miles away from where my 5 x great grandfather lived. I am hoping he was related, perhaps even my 6 x great grandfather. As some of you know, the problem is my family was not too big on baptism up until the 1830s onwards and I rarely come across marriage entries.

I have had a bit of (well overdue) luck putting together lots of pieces of research over the past few months and it keeps turning out that branches of my Borders ancestors prior to the 1750s were connected with one another either by marriage or birth in some way i.e. same great grandparents or cousins of cousins etc. A great deal of them being neighbouring portioners or tenants of farms within the Selkirkshire/Roxburghshire area. I am hoping that it is more than a coincidence this gentleman shared the same uncommon family name and lived to close to my own?

Btw, "6 young foals" is more than I've ever had before - thank you, Alan =D>

Page 2 is even worse:

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb4 ... gshaw2.jpg

[AndrewP]

Hi Sandy,

It would take something stronger than my reading glasses and a few vodkas to be able to read and make sense of that.

All the best,

AndrewP

[SandySandilands]

Hi Sandy,

It would take something stronger than my reading glasses and a few vodkas to be able to read and make sense of that.

All the best,

AndrewP

LOL Aye... me too. Slàinte

[LesleyB]

Aw, dearie me, page 2 is not good....!!! Pour me wan o' they vodkas Andrew!!

Except, it kinda looks to me that about a third of the way down we may have a new document starting, which would suggest that may be where the one of interest stops...?
The bleed-through is dire.