Making Sense of Latin Documents For Family & Local Historians By Brooke Westcott

Making Sense of Latin Documents for Family and Local Historians does exactly what the title says!

The further back your research takes you, the more likely you are to encounter documents partially or wholly in Latin. From wills to inventories and writs to land deeds, digging deeper into these documents for family or local history is highly rewarding. You will need this book!

There is a chapter devoted to each of the main categories of documents you are likely to encounter. The text provides short sections in Latin followed by the English equivalent. With this book to hand, you will be able to translate the basic form of the Latin, enabling you to glean every morsel of useful information.

This is not a guide to reading old handwriting or to translating Latin, so you will need to develop both these skills.   The author provides a helpful short further reading list together with some suggested online tutorials.

First published in 2014, and never out of print since, this second edition is a  reliable and practical aid for the family or local historian grappling with documents written in Latin. The publishers are confident you will not be disappointed.