Family letters
Letters between relatives, typed in date order with sender and place noted at the top of each one. Crossed-out words are kept and marked, so the page reads the way it was written.
Handwriting transcription, done online
Old letters and notebooks, typed out line by line
Hertz Vitoria reads handwritten family papers — letters, diaries, recipe notebooks, postcards — from scans you send, and types them into clean documents that keep the original wording, spelling and page order. A one-person practice, working from scans only.
The work
Four kinds of papers arrive most often. Each one is read in full, typed in full, and returned as a document you can open on any computer.
Diaries and journals
Day-by-day entries typed under their original dates. Where the hand cannot be read with certainty, the word is shown in brackets with a question mark, never guessed silently.
Recipe notebooks
Handwritten recipes typed as they stand, with the old measures left as written and the margin notes kept beside the recipe they belong to. One recipe per page, with an index of titles at the front.
Postcards and short notes
Front and back described together: the message typed, the postmark and address read where they can be, and a line on what the picture side shows.
The hard part is reading, not typing
Anyone can type. What takes time is learning one person's hand: how they wrote a capital letter, which words they shortened, where a faded line picks up again on the next page. The first pages of every set are read slowly for exactly that reason.
The aim is a faithful copy, not a polished one. Spelling, punctuation and the order of pages stay as they were, so the typed text can always be checked against the original.
- Original wording kept
- Unclear words marked, not guessed
- Page numbers matched to scans
- Margin notes kept in place
- Scans returned or deleted on request
- Plain document files
- One reader from start to finish
How it runs
Three steps, all by email and shared folder. Nothing is typed until the scope has been agreed in writing.
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You send a few sample pages
Three or four scans or clear phone photos are enough to judge the hand, the language and the condition of the paper.
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A written scope comes back
How the pages will be typed, which format the file will take, how unclear words will be marked and roughly how long it takes. You accept it, change it or stop there.
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The set is typed and returned
The full transcription comes back as a document, with a short note listing any pages that were too faded to read in full.
Agreed first
The practical points, written here so they are clear before anything is sent.
- Who reads your pages
- One person. The same reader who writes the scope types every page; nothing is passed on or sent to software for automatic reading.
- Where
- Online only. Originals stay with you; only scans or photos are sent.
- Languages
- Handwriting in English or Portuguese, typed in the language it was written in.
- Your scans
- Kept only while the work is open, then deleted or returned, as you choose.
- Changes to the scope
- Anything outside the written scope is raised first and only done if you agree.
- Payment
- Nothing is sold or paid for on this website. Invoicing is arranged directly after a scope is accepted.
Questions before you send anything
If yours is not here, write it on the request page.
Are phone photos good enough?
Usually, if the page is flat, in daylight and fills the frame. The sample pages show quickly whether a proper scan would help.
What if part of a page cannot be read?
It is marked in the text where it falls, with the readable letters kept. Nothing is filled in to make a sentence look complete.
Can the spelling be modernised?
The default is to keep it as written. A second, tidied copy can be agreed in the scope if you would like one for reading aloud or sharing.
Who answers the request?
The same person who would read the pages, in writing, one request at a time. Nothing here replies automatically.
Is there a box of letters nobody can read?
Describe the papers on the request page: what they are, roughly how many pages, and the language. A reply comes back in writing, and nothing is typed until a scope is agreed.