Rant time!

For my work in progress, I want to know what the full text of Jasper Tudor's will says. (There's an abstract in Testamenta Vestusa (sp?), but I want the whole thing.) So I paid a researcher from the UK to transcribe the thing for me, and a month has passed without receiving anything from him. He's promised something soon, but I don't think I'll be using him again. If my eyes were sharper and I had more experience with reading medieval handwriting, I'd have tackled it myself.

What I really want to know is if Jasper mentioned his wife in his will. I'll be sorely disappointed if after all this waiting, he doesn't. Don't let me down, Jasper!

Geez, you'd think the transcriber would at least be able to tell you if her name appears in the will.

Yay! Finally got it! Only one passing reference to his wife (who wasn't made an executor. Perhaps she didn't have much of a head for details).

These things are such a nightmare! I stupidly thought I'd be able to transcribe old documents until I got to the National Archives and looked at one!!!

Glad you eventually got it though Susan. Waiting for something that's late is just one more stress you don't need when you are a mum as well as a writer.

By the way, there's an intersting little game on the National Archives site at this web address. The one to look at is the ducking school game where you have to transcribe the words that come up on screen to save the woman from getting wet!

The currency converter is useful too (I used it for the wine post)

I bought a PDF of one English language 15th-century will off the National Archives site. I could make out a word here and there (mostly proper names), but I would have probably had to blow the thing up to about three times the original size to make any sort of go with it. Even then I suspect I would have had hard going!

At least Jasper didn't leave his wife out of the will completely. I feel much better about portraying their relationship in a positive light now.

Isn't it funny how we get ourselves so involved in other peoples' relationships - even from hundreds of years ago! You begin to feel like part of the family after a while.