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Date: | Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:52:00 -0400 |
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YES ! In transcribing some Virginia chancery records (1840± time frame),
I've seen the same -- lack of punctuation and irregular use of
capitalization. However, I have not seen "I" or "i" written often enough to compare.
When an "orator" is addressing the court, for example, instead of saying "I,"
he says your orator.
Carole D. Bryant
In a message dated 10/27/2010 8:16:21 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Dear All,
I figure there are quite a few subscribers here who have struggled
with transcribing old handwritten letters. I've just emerged from
doing transcriptions for more than 70 Civil War era letters. A major
part of the correspondence occurred among three brothers, their
families and themselves. All three followed what appears to be the
unusual convention of avoiding all punctuation and all inital
capitalization (they seemed to like some letters as capitals -- those
would be capitalized wherever they were found). In addition to not
capitalizing letters at the beginning of sentences they would render
the personal pronoun "I" as a capital just once, at it's first use --
after that it was always written as "i." I'm wondering if anyone
else has come across this pattern.
Jack Fallin
Walnut Creek, CA
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