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4	Buy A Dictionary
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7	Buy A Dictionary
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10	Buy A Dictionary
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14	Buy A Dictionary
15	Today You Will… Learn a method for interpreting the words in documents. Learn a method for recognizing the written words in documents. Practice reading documents.
16	1. Decide The Documents Purpose From: Title Page/Target Catalog Heading of the Document Scanning for Purpose Words: Testamentum Obitus Est Nuptias Baptizatus Est Conjugeverunt Liber Confirmatorum
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20	Look For The Date Of The Event Most documents use the Gregorian date: day, month, year (1582-calendar reform). Many events will be recorded using the ecclesiastical calendar: fixed and moveable feast days A few recorders used the Roman calendar (all dates were calculated from Kalends, Nones, Ides).
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22	Get A Good Reference Book For Dates Kenneth L. Smith, Genealogical Dates: A User Friendly Guide (Rockport, ME: Picton Press, 1994). C. R. Cheney, Handbook of Dates For Students of English History (London: Cambridge University Press, 1995). Herman Grotefend, Taschendbuch Der Zeitrechnung, 13^TH ed. (Hannover, Ger: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1991).
23	2. List The Words You Expect To Find Son Daughter Bride Bridegroom Parents Witness/Godparent Child Wife/Husband Age/Year Filus Filia Sponsa/Nupta/Virgo Sponsus/Iuvenis Parentes (Mater/Pater) Testis/Sponsor/Patrinus Infans Uxor/Maritus Aetas/Annus
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25	3. Read for Familiar words Look for familiar words in each line. Look for familiar word stems. Unchanging part of a word that carries its meaning.
26	5. Identify The Nouns Nouns are the people and things documents are written about. Nouns are masculine, feminine, and neutral. The endings writers place on nouns are dictated by their function, gender, and number. Endings tell you how many people/things are involved, who/what is the subject/object.
27	Noun Cases/Forms Nominative: for nouns used as subjects in a sentence or clause Genitive: shows possession (of------) Dative: (noun receives action, an indirect object (to----) Accusative: (noun is acted upon, A direct object) Ablative: normally used for nouns following A preposition
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30	A Note About Finding Latin Nouns In Dictionaries Identify the word stem of the word you are looking for. The word stem is the part of the word that carries the meaning; endings are added to it to show how many are involved and the role of the noun (subject, object) in the sentence.
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33	Summary: Nouns Nouns are divided into declensions based on their spelling and endings Each declension has forms reflecting the noun’s use in the sentence Each form has an ending added to the word stem to indicate the noun’s use in the sentence and its number (singular or plural)
34	6. Identify The Pronouns Pronouns appear in the dictionary in the nominative (subject) singular form.
35	Pronoun Forms
36	Pronouns Who, Which, That Who = qui (m), quae (f), quod (n) Other uses are shown by adding endings to the qu- stem (quem, quam, quod) all are translated as who/whom Which = qui as a question=quis/quid (which or what) That=ille, illa, illud or iste, istae, ista (that or that one)
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38	Adjectives Appear in the dictionary in the nominative form. Drop the endings of other forms to obtain the stem and look up the stem in the dictionary, adding an –us, -a, -um, or a –ter, to get the nominative form. Some adjectives will have other endings in the nominative form. Look for words with the right stem, and a meaning that fits the context of the document .
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40	8. Identify The Verbs Verbs tell us what happened, when it happened, and how many were involved. Verbs are always the minority--nouns, pronouns, adjectives, conjunctions will always outnumber them. Like nouns, pronouns and adjectives, endings are added to the verb stem. You will need a good pocket dictionary with regular, irregular, and deponent verb tables.
41	Verbs Most documents are written using verbs in the present, perfect (past) and future tenses. Most dictionaries list verbs in their first person singular present active form. This form is characterized by the ending -o or –io.
42	Verbs In Dictionaries Dictionaries also list the infinitive, perfect tense and participle form of a verb Example celebr-o (i celebrate). Celebr-are (to celebrate), celebr-avi ( I celebrated), celebratum (celbrated) To look up a verb found in a document, drop the ending, add –o or –io to the stem and look it up
43	Verb Tense And Person Endings added to the stem signify both the tense and the person or persons who are the subject of the verb (i, you, he-she-it, we, you, they) Use the verb tables in your dictionary to match the ending on the word in the document. Note that only plural forms have an -n- in the ending attached to the stem (i.e. -unt, -int, -ant, -ent, -ntur)
44	9. Interpret The Document Write down, in the order they appear, all of the words in the document As you translate, place words in an order that makes the document’s meaning clear. Review the translation to see if some meanings do not fit the context. Look-up words that do not fit to see if another spelling or meaning will make a difference
45	Review Decide document’s purpose List expected words Read for familiar words Write familiar words Identify nouns Identify pronouns Identify adjectives Identify verbs Interpret the document
46	Reading Old Handwriting Trace initial sentences Trace an upper and lower case alphabet Copy each word using the alphabet you created Look for familiar words Look for abbreviations
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49	Reading Abbreviations leaving out the middle letters (often vowels). leaving off the ending. using only the initial letter of common short words or prefixes that begin with p- and qu- (pre-, pro-, par-, quis) Abbreviations are usually signaled by the following signs: . , ‘ / - ~ \| \ :
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53	Good Luck!