English translation needed for Gaelic WILL

[Lora]

I recently downloaded an old 1634 WILL from ScotlandsPeople, only to find it was written in "Gaelic".

Is there anyone on this forum who I could email a copy of it to and have them translate it back to me in "English" ?

Thanks.
Lora

[LesleyB]

Hi Lora
Are you sure it is in Gaelic? Not a mixture of Scots and Latin, or just Latin?
Any chance you could post a page or two in the gallery so we can see what language it is in?
See : http://talkingscot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6496
in the "how to " section.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Lora]

Hi Leslie:

I followed your instructions and uploaded the 2 pages to "Gallery". I'll have a look back tomorrow and see what has become of it.

Your help is much appreciated - thank you.

When I think "Scotland" I think, "Gaelic"! Never thought of Latin!!! Either way, I'm totally lost in trying to transcribe this WILL.

Best Regards,
Lora

[LesleyB]

For anyone interested to see these pages
http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1576
http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... ?pos=-1577

[LesleyB]

Hi Lora
Looks like standard stuff to me, Scots with some Latin - written in secretary hand, a style of handwriting popular then, but not so easy to read now unless you kinda know how it works! see www.scottishhandwriting.com
However, it's not one for tackling now, in the middle of the Talking Scot party ....and after a couple of glasses of SarahND's whilte wine......you need a clear head to do this kind of stuff. It's late here in Scotland.



Best wishes
Lesley

[LesleyB]

Hi Lora
It begins;

Testament Dative and Inventor[y] of
[th]e goodes and geir pertaining to umquhile*
Johne mcInnes in Tulloch____ [th]e_____
of _______ [th]e tyme of his decease

*Umquhile - Scots word meaning "the deceased"

It is a slow process and would take a good while to work it all out. These documents usually follow a standard format, so parts can be easy to work out and other bits not so easy....!

For an example of the kind of format, see
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/conte ... r=546&1076
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/conte ... ript89.htm

Best wishes
Lesley

[Lora]

This is what I have come up with so far:

"Testament Dative and Inventor[y] of [th]e goodes and geir pertaining to umquhile* (thank you Leslie)

... Johne mcinnes in Tulloch (wil?) in [t]he presants of umqr? ("the deceased"?) the tyme of the decend. CRjna Deceas i_ sucestat. In the moneth of appryle 1634 years. Faithfullie gebin up be finlay (mc ean mcinnes the son??)..... upon the sworne with & .... e[tcetra] _______ ."

"In the first itib? giffin up the law Umquhl ("the deceased") swlore? -- hand hand [t]he tyme of the decend .."

Whew!!

As you can see, I am not making much progress!
If anyone can correct and/or add to this, please jump in! I can use all the help I can get.

Thanks
Lora

[LesleyB]

Hi Lora

As you can see, I am not making much progress!

you're doin' great... no one said it was easy!

It does get a little easier once you begin to get a feel for the type of language likely to be used and the style of the writer's hand.

the tyme of the decend

Is likely to be "tyme of his decease"

Faithfullie gebin up be

The letter v is formed in such a way that it can look like a b. I think it is likely to be Faithfullie gevin up be (be is common usage for what we would say as "by")

In the first itib

I'll away and look at the document, but I think that "itib" is likely to be "Item".

I think it might be "Item the first...."? not sure though.....
line ends "[th]e said umquhile Johne"

Best wishes
Lesley

[Currie]

Hello Lora,

Slightly off the subject.

Those images are very highly compressed. If they’re the same as the ones you’ve downloaded at home you may have your compression setting at “Highest” in the “My details” section at SP. There’s very much pixellation type distortion of the background which possibly isn’t helping its readability. Those yellow smudges around the writing are probably traces of the actual colour of the document.

If all your OPR and Will images at home are similarly affected or don’t look as good as they should you could consider changing your compression setting to something very much lower and get copies that would look closer to the real thing. They will take longer to download but would be worth the wait.

If you have all this compression business under control then just ignore the above and this note can serve as a reminder and demonstration to each and all of the effects of too much compression on JPG images.

All the best,
Alan

[Lora]

Hi Alan:

Thank you for pointing this out. The next time I download an image, I will definitely try to change the "compression setting" and see if there is an improvement. Much appreciated!

Cheers,
Lora