Richard Gilreath of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission kindly took the time to answer questions from Sara Brumfield of FromThePage, and discussed their project and experience using the platform.
Richard Gilreath is the Reference Archivist of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
First, tell us about your documents.
We’re transcribing two indexes dated 1892-1922 to Texas Third Court of Appeals case files that are part of the archival holdings of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC). Texas 3rd Court of Appeals records document judicial appeals from the Austin and Central Texas area, including appellate cases involving Texas state agencies, and are a rich resource for Texas history and government. Browsing the indexes, we see cases concerning railroads, insurance companies, banks, breweries, cities and counties, elected officials, and fraternal organizations, just to name a few.
The indexes identify the names of the parties in the case and the case file number and are organized alphabetically by name (often last name, but names of companies, government agencies, and the State of Texas are included). This information is incredibly important for locating case files! Case files in the Texas State Archives are listed and stored by case file number. Having these handwritten indexes available only to researchers visiting our Austin location has limited the discovery of historically important case files.
This project was possible because of a generous grant from the Texas Historical Foundation and its Marshall J. Doke, Jr., Texas Legal History Preservation Trust. We’re so grateful for their support.
What are your goals for the projects?
We want to transcribe both indexes. This will make it easier for researchers to access case files from the earliest years of the Third Court of Appeals. We hired a clerk to get us started, and she did an amazing job and transcribed all of the first index and the majority of the second index. We need to finish transcribing the second index, which we’re now turning to crowdsourcing to do.
The spreadsheet of transcription data exported out of FromThePage is being added to TSLAC’s Texas Digital Archive and serves as the basis for a look-up table. With the indexes searchable online and available to a broader audience, we hope to see an increase in requests for access to the actual case files.
We’re also using this to test out procedures and best practices for crowdsourced transcription. We’ve learned so much from working with our clerk and the staff at FromThePage, and we’re identifying more of our materials to transcribe, such as a record of escapes from Texas prisons.
How are you recruiting or finding volunteers/collaborators?
We’re still early in the process of finding volunteers. Right now, TSLAC staff have researched the best way to do this – and that’s meant learning from FromThePage and other institutions that use it. We’re planning to reach out to our usual groups of volunteers, promote on social media, and build a dedicated group of volunteers. We’d love for individuals interested in Texas history to join us! If anyone has questions about how to get started, contact us at transcribe@tsl.texas.gov.
Can you share your experience using FromThePage?
We’ve already experienced a lot of success in using FromThePage. The transcription of the 1892-1900 index to the Third Court of Appeals case files is completed and available on the Texas Digital Archive (TDA), as a tool that lets researchers locate case files. In four months, we transcribed this volume and made that transcription accessible to researchers online through a customized tool. The images of the original volumes are also on the TDA, if you want to compare them.
Our transcriber was able to get started quickly with FromThePage. The spreadsheet-based transcription also let us create fields for transcription that matched the original indexes. This new feature made for a smooth process in getting our transcriber up to speed, reviewing her work, and making a transcription that reflected the layout and information of our original document.
How does FromThePage & crowdsourcing fit with state libraries and archives?
Crowdsourcing is an incredibly important tool for state libraries and archives. Our institutions rely on volunteers to help accomplish our mission to provide needed information to the public. At TSLAC, our volunteers have already helped record books for Texans who need that format to read, imaged our holdings, helped process and inventory local records, and much more. However, many of these volunteer roles must be done by people coming to our Austin, Texas facility. Online volunteering opportunities, like FromThePage, offer the possibility for volunteers across the nation and even globe to help our institutions accomplish their mission.
Anything else you'd like to tell us?
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about TSLAC’s work on FromThePage! We’re just getting started and we have more exciting things to come.
Interested in transcribing your own court indexes? Schedule a brainstorming call with Ben and Sara.