Record Usage and Interpretation

Is there a recommended notation for transcription? I have seen various styles of punctuation to indicate such things as uncertain characters, clarifications or suggested interpretations, inserted text, marginalia, underlined text, italics, struck-out text, and even the use of different colours by the original author. Some of these are incomplete -- in my opinion -- and some rely on special symbols that are hard to generate reliably (e.g. the Unicode symbols U+202A and U+202B for L-to-R and R-to-L embedding).

When writing about two or more people with the same name, what is the best way to distinguish their identies for the reader?  In the case I am currently developing, I've got a father and son, a possible grandfather, a nephew and a great nephew all with the same name.  They did not, however, generally distinguish themselves in records being used as evidence.  I've seen situations where people just invent a name, such as "Sam Jones, Sr," "Sam Jones, Jr." and "Sam Jones III," yet no records call them by that name with the generational suffix appended.

Elizabeth,

Sorry; this question doesn't apply to this forum, but I figure I'm not the only one who has or will ask this question.

What is the URL for an RSS news feed of the comments posted on the EE blog? I would have expected something like https://www.evidenceexplained.com/comments/rss, but that doesn't work.

Thanks,
---Robert
 

I have at hand an 1820 letter from a Rhode Island businessman who gripes that he has had a libel filed against him on a bottomry bond. What’s going on here? I thought libel was slander, but I’m guessing this wasn’t about slandering somebody’s bottom.

When I first started doing genealogy in the late 80's I was given a copy of a will for my 4th great-grandfather. Notes written on the copy indicate that the will came from the Historical Documents Collection at Queens College. From what I can read of the title it appears to be Albany Court of Pro___ Wills, no. AG44.

Do you find it best to list all the details under the husband (head of household) and list facts for the household members (such as occupation) under the individual; or would you put the full detail page under a marriage event.

This is perhaps software related but I only am familiar with Legacy so don't know if the question arises with other software. I like to put the census under events even though there is some controversary as to whether it should only be used as a source?

In 1890, Adolph Espe arrived at New York aboard the S.S. Slavonia from Hamburg. One column on the incoming passenger list (but not on the departing list out of Hamburg) is headed Death and Cause of Death. In that column, for Adolph, someone has written "6-4." Does this mean that he died on June 4th? Or something else? Six other people on the list have numbers in that column but the ink and the handwriting for those numbers doesn't match most entries on the page. I'm attaching an image.

I am looking at a 1870 census record for Daniel Dorris in New York City.

http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View&r=an&dbid=7163&iid=4274938_00619&fn=Daniel&ln=Dorris&st=r&ssrc=&pid=29910728

I'm using a collection of late 17th and early 18th New England merchant records. They did a lot of business with English and Scottish firms and I don't understand many of the terms in these records. Any suggestions for quick, online help?