The transcription of the Moravian manuscripts was a very unique opportunity to have. I’ve never been the first person to transcribe anything, so having the opportunity to essentially make history through these transcriptions is amazing.
I enjoyed trying to see the stories that the author was trying to convey. I was assigned with transcribing Anna Elizabeth Rauch’s manuscript that detailed her life from 1756 to 1762. Working with these transcriptions felt like looking at life through a different lens. I also liked the format of the transcription website; it was easy to mark People, Places, Corrections, etc.
I decided to take the role of group leader for this assignment because I felt like I needed to be more of a leader in life, and this was a good start. My role was to assign people which pages to transcribe and facilitate the Google Docs document that we would all paste our answers on. It was a rewarding role in that I got to know three more people pretty well, and coordinate us working together as a team to get these transcriptions done.
One of the primary struggles I faced was trying to read Anna Elizabeth Rauch’s handwriting. Anna wrote in Old English, so it was hard to comprehend a lot of her messages. The ink from one line oftentimes bled into the next line, so a strategy was to hold a finger right above the words to separate the individual lines.
Also, there were many words and abbreviations that were used which I had never seen before. This was due to a shift in our language throughout centuries. As the Old English words became more common, it became easier to transcribe what Anna said. Also, having a new group of friends to help me with whatever I couldn’t figure out was super useful.
I am a sophomore at Bucknell University, majoring in Mathematical Economics and minoring in Computer Science.
