So let’s put some of these techniques to use.

Try reading the passage below and transcribe what you can into a separate word document. If you are unable to read a letter or word put a question mark in its place.

Customs Example.jpg

J. J. Crowley. Letter to S.L Day, December 18, 1891. RG 36, Records of the US Customs, Port Huron, Letters Rec, Box 1, NAID 650818. NARA Chicago.

Answer

St. Paul, Dec 18, 1891

Mr S. L. Day Special Inspector

Port Huron, Mich.

Dear Sir, Please accept my thanks for your two letters – one in relation to values of blueberries, the other concerning alleged smuggling of opium from the vicinity of Calgary in the northwest country. I will make the latter the subject of a thorough investigation and as a preliminary will soon place myself in communication with Mr [Rogers?]. Please keep me posted if you chance to run across any information you think would be useful to me.

Respectfully,

J.J. Crowley

Special Agent

When I set out to transcribe this document, I was not entirely sure what name was mentioned at the end of letter. The first letter in particular had me stumped. So I looked through the capitalized letters written elsewhere in the documents to eliminate some possibilities. We can eliminate the letters A, C, D, H, I, J, M, P, and S like that. After that I went through the alphabet. It didn’t look like a capital B, E, F, G, N, O, Q, T, U, V, W, X,Y, or Z. That left me with three possible letters. It could be a weird looking K or L, but it seems far more likely the letter is R for Rogers. So with a quick elimination I’d narrowed down what I think the name is to three possibilities and have a strong suspicion as to what it is. Just to be safe I’ve included the name with a question mark until I have a chance to become more confident with my answer, often by reading more of this person’s handwriting.