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| − | ==Welcome to the MarineLives project==
| + | __TOC__ |
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| − | ==Our readership==
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| − | <div style="float: left; vertical-align: bottom; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; background:#dcdcdc; border: 1px solid #b0c4de; width: 450px;">
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| − | <div style="background: #b0c4de; padding: 5px 10px 5px 10px; font-size: larger; font-weight: bold;">Four Years of Collaborative Content Creation</div>
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| − | <div style="padding: 10px;">
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| − | <div style="font-famil:Helvetica; font-size: large;">'''The MarineLives collaborative public history project was established in 2012 to digitise, transcribe and annotate the manuscript records of the English High Court of Admiralty from the 1650s and 1660s. The original records are held at the National Archives in Kew.'''</div>
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| − | The project is led and advised by academics and members of the general public.
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| − | In the last four years [[Volunteers|project volunteers]] have transcribed over 4.0 million words, which are published on this wiki as full text transcriptions with accompanying metadata
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| − | The wiki has {{NUMBEROFPAGES}} wiki pages, {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} content pages and {{NUMBEROFFILES}} manuscript images. The wiki has had {{NUMBEROFEDITS}} edits.
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| − | To learn more or to volunteer please [http://marinelives.org/contact-us.html contact us]
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| − | </div>
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| − | </div>
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| − | <div style="float: left; vertical-align: bottom; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; background:#dcdcdc; border: 1px solid #b0c4de; width: 450px;">
| + | ==MarineLives Online Research Seminar: Thursday, April 25th 2022== |
| − | <div style="background: #b0c4de; padding: 5px 10px 5px 10px; font-size: larger; font-weight: bold;">Popular Finding Aids</div>
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| − | <div style="padding: 10px;">
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| − | '''[[Tools: Slavery|Slavery]]''' - Lists 34 English, Dutch & Portuguese slave ships in 1650s HCA records
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| − | '''[[Tools: Probate records|Probate records]]''' - Lists full text transcriptions of merchant wills available on MarineLives wiki
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| − | '''[[Tools: London 1677 Directory probate record lookup|Probate & London directory 1677 lookup]]''' - Matches merchants in 1650s Admiralty Court records to Probate records and listing of merchants in 1677 London merchant directory
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| − | [[File:Litle London Directory 1677 JC Hotten 1863 Piece 190114 copy.PNG|thumbnail|center|200px|[https://archive.org/stream/littlelondondir00lond#page/2/mode/2up John Camden Hotten (ed.), Little London Directory of 1677 (London, 1863)]]]
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| − | </div>
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| − | </div>
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| | + | '''We are holding an online research seminar at the end of April to introduce and demonstrate the SOLM-2024 Admiralty Court Database''' |
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| | + | [[File:Seminar Agenda 05042024.JPG]] |
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| | + | ==Who will benefit from attending this seminar?== |
| | | | |
| − | ==MarineLives Digital Pop Up Lab==
| + | '''This seminar is intended for doctoral students, post-docs and early career scholars interested in exploring the potential of English High Court of Admiralty material''' |
| | | | |
| − | [[File:Pop Up Lab Advisors 03072016.PNG|750px|left|Announcing MarineLives Digital Pop Up Lab Technical Advisors]]
| + | Participants will: |
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| − | '''The MarineLives Digital Pop Up Lab is starting this week.'''
| + | 1. Receive a free copy of the 24,000 deponent, 10,000 ship database (SOLM-2024) to support their personal research, in advance of the seminar |
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| − | '''Team 1 will work on prototyping semi-automated handwriting recognition'''
| + | 2. Guidance at the seminar on how the database is structured, and how it can best be searched and used to address research questions |
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| − | We will explore line and text block recognition of legal documents using software tools developed by the Transkribus project. If we can get a Java coder on the team, we will embed the Transkribus tools in the MarineLives wiki. The team will work with C17th records from the English High Court of Admiralty and from the King's Bench. We will explore whether Transkribus tools can be used by volunteers to create metadata for virgin manuscripts for which there are neither existing metadata, keywords, nor full text transcriptions. We are interested in both the software and workflows required to systematise the creation of metadata and keywords to make previously "invisible" manuscript images discoverable.
| + | 3. Hands on experience of using the database, with free online access to 30,000 images which support the database |
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| − | [http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/Tools:_Team_One Click here for more detail on Team One]
| + | 4. Ongoing support for seminar participants after the seminar as they further explore and use the database |
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| − | '''Team 2 will work on tailored algorithmic search, and will prototype semantic search methods on our semantic media wiki'''
| + | ---- |
| | + | ==Users Guide to SOLM-2024 database== |
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| − | We will explore how historians approach historical search when they are looking for people, places and dates. We will look at search engines employed by archives and libraries such as the National Archives and the British Library, at search tools provided by digital resources such as British History online and at federated search tools such as Connected Histories. We will look at search tools, glossaries, and lookup tables on the MarineLives wiki. Our focus will be on how historians really work, and on how technology can be used to speed up and make more effective the day-to-day task of historical search.
| + | [[Users Guide to SOLM-2024 database]] |
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| − | An explicit goal of team two will be to understand the semantic properties of the MarineLives semantic media wiki. This wiki was implemented in May 2015 by one of our volunteers, Rowan Beentje. With four million words of full text, over 10,000 manuscript images and over 20,000 pages, improved search will have a dramatic impact for all users of the wiki. A number of potential semantic search plug-ins exist, and we would like our volunteers to specify the functionality our users need and to explore the appropriate semantic search solution.
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| − | [http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/Tools:_Team_Two Click here for more detail on Team Two]
| + | ==What we would like in return?== |
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| − | [http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/Tools:_Semantic_Queries Click here for background on semantic search techniques] applied to the MarineLives wiki
| + | '''In return the MarineLives project would appreciate:''' |
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| − | [http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/Special:Ask Click here for access to the Special:Ask Semantic Query Form] to query our the MarineLives wiki
| + | 1. Your commitment to working collaboratively as you explore your own research questions |
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| − | '''Team 3 will work on visualisation techniques'''
| + | 2. Your willingness to offer suggestions on how to improve the database |
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| − | We will explore how visualisation techniques can be used by historians for multiple purposes - to improve the discoverability of data, to highlight and analyse linkages in data, and to aid the comprehension of data. We will undertake an analysis of our own needs as historians and will explore how software designers have approached meeting those needs.
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| − | An explicit goal of team three is to understand the visualisation potential of the MarineLives full text corpus and to explore approaches to mining the data for visualisation applications.
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| − | We would like to explore the use an off-the-shelf Named Entity Recogniser to detect places, ships and dates, and to visualise the results in multiple ways and for multiple analytical purposes. We would like to compare this automated approach to the generation of tagged data to the hand extraction of geographical and other tagged data. We will build off earlier work done in collaboration with the Department of Informatics at the University of Mannheim. Team members will have an opportunity to work with, and improve upon, a MarineLives dataset for C17th ship sailing times between ports and dwell time in ports
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| − | [http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/Tools:_Team_Three Click here for more detail on Team Three]
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| − | '''For further background please use our [http://marinelives.org/wiki/Special:MarineLivesContact contact form].'''
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| − | '''For information on the technical background to the MarineLives semantic media wiki and to the three teams, please look at [http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/Tools:_Tech_Talk 'Tech Talk' by our semantic media wiki designer, Rowan Beentje]
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| | + | * Thematically |
| | + | * Searchability |
| | + | * Usability |
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| | + | ==What you will learn from attending the MarineLives online seminar on April 25th 2024== |
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| − | ==The Silver Ships research project==
| + | '''For the next two weeks we will be adding content to this section to illustrate the potential of the SOLM-2024 database. Today we are starting with Historical Geography.''' |
| | | | |
| − | [[File:SilverShipsEtchingDu-Gard BL.PNG|400px|thumb|left|Etching from Thomas Violet, 'A True Narrative of som Remarkable Proceedings Concerning the Ships Sampson, Salvador, and George' (1650s). Source: British Library: [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)] licence]]
| + | <u>1. How to explore Early Modern Historical Geography using the SOLM-2024 database</u> |
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| − | '''Three large ships (The ''Salvador'', the ''Sampson'' and the ''Saint George''), of supposed Lubeck and Hamburg build and ownership, were captured by the English in 1652 with highly valuable cargos of silver bullion.'''
| + | PEOPLE |
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| − | '''The ships were on their way from Cadiz with bullion from the Spanish West Indies going northwards. It was disputed in the English Admiralty Court as to whether the ships were bound legally for the Spanish Netherlands, or illegally for Amsterdam.'''
| + | * 24,000 deponents with current place of abode at level of parish and town |
| | + | * 2258 deponents with current place of abode identifed and length of time spent at that place |
| | + | * 1675 deponents with place of birth identified |
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| − | The case was endowed with political as well as commercial weight - the Commonwealth, and then the Protectorate, was keen to have the bullion declared lawfull prize, but the Spanish government contested this.
| + | SHIPS |
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| − | The many and varied court depositions and other English Admiralty (and English and Spanish State Paper) records give very granular and highly colourful accounts of Seville and Cadiz, Hamburg and Lubeck, the Spanish Netherlands, the by-ways between the Spanish Netherlands and Amsterdam by which bullion could be smuggled overland and by canal, and the River Thames, where the ships and sailors were held following seizure.
| + | * 13,989 ship voyages linked to specific deponents with full or partial nodal descriptions |
| | + | * 8,589 depositions linked to named ships which are affiliated with specific ports of ownership |
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| − | Thomas Violet, a rather dodgy goldsmith, was involved as an agitator on behalf of the State, and published a pamphlet pleading for reimbursement of his efforts, which supplements the Admiralty Court material on the MarineLives wiki.
| + | MATERIALS |
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| − | The Silver Ships project is being run by participants in the [http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/Tools:_Three_Silver_Ships#Research_goals_and_approach MarineLives 2015 summer transcription training programme].
| + | * 3,472 depositions linked to named ships with the voyage nodal patterns fully or partially identified and ship ladings identified for specific ports |
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| − | '''Click to [http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/Tools:_Three_Silver_Ships#Narrative read more]''' about the Silver ships and the historical and legal context of the resulting disputes. | + | - '''We are growing this section on the geography and character of ship ladings in response to the geographical interests of database users. Participants in our online seminar on April 25th 2024 will have a chance to influence this according to their research interests''' |
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| + | MICROHISTORY |
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| − | ==Our team based transcription programmes==
| + | * Depositions related to: |
| | + | - The Royal Exchange (and Exchanges elsewhere in continental Europe) |
| | + | - Customs Houses |
| | + | - Taverns, inns and victualling houses |
| | + | - Private homes |
| | + | - Warehouses and cellars |
| | + | - Wharves and keys |
| | + | - Shops |
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| − | We run regular team-based transcription programmes on-line, facilitated by trained team leaders, with teams of three or four volunteer associates. These programmes last twelve weeks, and will take a transcriber from a novice to a confident transcriber in that space of time.
| + | [[File:Length Of Time Resident 07042024.JPG|1300px|thumb|left|]] |
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| − | Please [http://marinelives.org/contact-us.html contact us] to discuss volunteering, or to explore how we might work with your University, School or Local History Society.
| + | [[File:Place Of Ship 07042024.JPG|1300px|thumb|left|]] |
| − | ----
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| − | [[File:Thomas Davies 14052015.PNG|210px|thumb|right|Thomas Davies]] | + | |
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| − | '''Thomas Davies was a third year history undergraduate student studying at Bath Spa University. In the summer of 2014, Thomas was a member of a four person virtual team of volunteers transcribing Admiralty Court witness statements from 1658 to 1660, facilitated by Dr. Philip Hnatkovich in Pennsylvania:'''
| + | [[File:Voyage Nodal Points TWO 07042024.JPG|1300px|thumb|left|]] |
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| − | "There were some challenging aspects of the programme — the main being distance. This was because we worked as a team and half of the team were based in the United Kingdom and half were based in the United States, so we had to be aware of time differences and that we would be unable to meet in person.
| + | [[File:Ladings By Geography 07042024.JPG|1300px|thumb|left|]] |
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| − | To combat this we used email, Google Hangouts, and Skype and made good use of all the resources available to stay in touch when working on the documents together. We had weekly calls to discuss team business. The weekly calls helped because we would talk about the problems or issues we faced weekly and how the transcriptions were to be presented covering topics such as layout or abbreviations.
| + | [[File:Micor History 07042024.JPG|1300px|thumb|left|]] |
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| − | The biggest challenge I faced in the transcription itself was becoming accustomed to the peculiar writing and distinguishing letters. Some letters look very similar, such as f’s and s’s, r’s and c’s not to mention t’s and l’s. I began transcribing effectively by taking it slow and working out the letters individually instead of looking at the word as a whole as we do with modern writing. I found this approach to be very effective.
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| − | MarineLives created a Bath Spa student section that helped me significantly, showing templates of letters and the different forms they have. This allowed me to tackle the many different writing styles the clerks used. Once I was able to distinguish between letters more clearly with considerable practise, I found I could transcribe enough of the page to get a good idea of what was being said in the documents. Then, I could alter words that did not fit within the context of the deposition, or using the context as a guideline as to what certain words should be."
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| − | [http://marinelives-theshippingnews.org/blog/2015/01/05/our-team-reflections-from-the-summer-programme-2014-part-2/ Read full article]
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| − | [[File:Katherine Parker 14052015.PNG|250px|thumb|right|Katherine Parker]]
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| − | '''Katherine Parker is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently writing her dissertation entitled “Toward a more ‘perfect knowledge': British geographic knowledge and South Seas exploration in the eighteenth century. She participated in the MarineLives Ph.D. forum in 2013, and the MarineLives summer programme in 2014:'''
| + | ==This is a list of people who are confirmed participants in the seminar== |
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| − | "On summer research trips to London in 2011 and 2012, I had looked at a few HCA documents and knew that the cases recorded in them offered rich material for social, economic, and naval history. Over the course of several skype meetings, I and other PhD students got to give our opinions about the proposed platform and methodology for transcription. Working with a team created a strong community aspect to the project from the beginning; I have always been impressed by the inclusiveness and openness that drives MarineLives. Also, it was refreshing to have my opinion valued as a PhD student, as sometimes that stage in one’s education is isolating and transitional—you are not yet qualified as an expert, but also not unknowledgeable about certain fields.
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| − | The value MarineLives placed on the voices of the PhD forum made me want to participate further, even though the works being transcribed were not strictly within the chronological bounds of my dissertation project. Thus, when the summer transcription project was created, I jumped at the opportunity to use paleographic and transcription skills I had gained after a year in London archives on a Social Sciences Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (2013-14).
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| − | Writing styles change over time, just like clothing and furniture styles. Thus, the letters inscribed within HCA volumes from the mid-seventeenth century posed a challenge for me, as I am used to the fluid, upright cursive (often written by a trained scribe or clerk) of the mid-eighteenth-century Admiralty. I came to enjoy the challenge of squinting at the digital pages in front of me, willing the words to make sense, filling in paragraphs slowly until suddenly they all made sense."
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| − | | + | |
| − | [http://marinelives-theshippingnews.org/blog/2015/01/11/our-team-reflections-from-the-2014-summer-programme-part-3/ Read full article]
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| | + | [[File:Seminar Participants 05042024.JPG]] |
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| − | ==The Court records==
| + | '''If for any reason you need to drop out unexpectedly prior to the seminar, please give us at least a couple of days notice so we can fill your space''' |
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| − | [[File:Court_Procedure_060515.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Admiralty court procedure]]
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| − | Click here for full listing of [[Court Records|Admiralty Court records within scope of MarineLives project]]
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| − | The [[Introduction to the High Court of Admiralty| English High Court of Admiralty]] produced a wide range of documents.
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| − | The various steps in a particular case can be followed in summary form in the '''Acts of Court'''.
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| − | A case was commenced with the issuing of a '''Warrant''' by the Court, and the preparation of a '''Libell''' or an '''Allegation''' by the party commencing the case.
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| − | Prior to witnesses being called to make their depositions, the defendant or "respondent" might make a '''Personal Answer''' in response to the Libell or Allegation.
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| − | The most accessible of the court records are the statements made by witnesses, which are called '''Depositions'''. These depositions were in response to written '''Interrogatories''', which were prepared by both plaintiffs and defendants in a case.
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| − | Various written documents were submitted by plaintiffs and defendants, as well as witnesses, during a court case. Some of these have survived as loose documents in the '''Instance Papers'''.
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| − | Many cases were settled prior to the giving of a formal verdict or '''Sentence'''. For those cases which went to sentence, the sentences can be found in document bundles. These bundles often include bills of expense related to the case, and in some cases include copies of the allegations or libells, and other miscellaneous documents.
| + | * Seminar is limited to 20 participants |
| | + | * We will be using ZOOM, with details to be emailed to participants prior to the event |
| | + | * Personal copies of the database to be emailed on Friday April 12th 2024 |
| | + | * Online users guide to the database to be published on the MarineLives wiki by Friday April 12th 2024 |
1. Receive a free copy of the 24,000 deponent, 10,000 ship database (SOLM-2024) to support their personal research, in advance of the seminar
2. Guidance at the seminar on how the database is structured, and how it can best be searched and used to address research questions
3. Hands on experience of using the database, with free online access to 30,000 images which support the database
4. Ongoing support for seminar participants after the seminar as they further explore and use the database
1. Your commitment to working collaboratively as you explore your own research questions
2. Your willingness to offer suggestions on how to improve the database
