Data Collections

Introduction to the collections

Each of the following is a collection of hand-written familiar letters or ego-documents (journals, diaries, family ledgers, etc) that I transcribed (often from Kurrent or Sütterlin) and in some cases translated from German. Each collection is mapped in GoogleMaps. Click on the map at the right to have more options in GoogleMaps.

Information about each collection is included on their individual pages. For collections use in my dissertation more data may be included, such as descriptions of each author and/or kinship diagrams. In most cases .txt files are available for download for further research. Click through the collections below to find more!

Transcription conventions

Some text segments are unclear or damaged. Sections I have added with relative certainty appear in [square brackets], uncertain parsings or suggestions appear in {braces}, sometimes with question marks. Letters or text segments that are completely unclear appear as {…} or [...]. Underlined text segments are present in the originals. Dashes above letters are used only when present in originals. This is indicative of the doubling of a consonant, most frequently n or m. Original spacing, spelling, and capitalization are kept. Strikethrough and super-/subscript are used to indicated text portions that were crossed out in the original or added between lines. Underlined text segments, strikethrough and super-/subscript do not show up in the .txt files available here. For underlined segments, spacing, and insertions or corrections (shown with strikethrough and super-/subscript) please see my dissertation. Page numbers are not present on most letters and have been added in [brackets]. Editorial notes have been added in (parentheses) and are tagged with my initials (SML) to separate from possible parentheses in the originals. Line numbers have also been added.

Letters listed in bold are in German, others are in English. Some letters listed in the indexes are not used in analysis; all excluded from analysis are noted.