I'm researching the backstory of this man, a figure in my hometown's history that has always intrigued me. I'll be going through his owner/employer's correspondence, legal documents, and business account books to try to flesh out Othello's life story, hoping I can at least find when/from whom he was bought, when he was freed, and maybe even get a sense of his personal traits.
I haven't done archival research in this era before, so I'm wondering if those of you who have can give me some pointers, especially in regards to reading handwriting/orthography, interpreting abbreviations and other conventions, etc. I'm particularly worried about being able to decipher account books and other business documents where shorthand would be abundant. I have a few weeks before I will head down to where the papers are held, so I'd like to use this time to maximize my efficiency while there.
Email the archive that holds the papers and ask if you can photograph them. There is nothing more annoying than failing to get through all your documents and having to organise a second trip (especially if the first was expensive). If you find something you think will be very useful then photograph it so you can move on without spending a huge amount of time on it.
A lot of the time I've found abbreviations to be fairly easy to guess (working with archives in the UK). Handwriting can be the really tricky part, but if you come across an illegible word then try looking for similar letter shapes in other words so you can make an educated guess. I've also found that trying to write the word myself in a notebook can help me work out what the word is.
If you're at an archive or library then don't be afraid to ask the staff for help! They're used to seeing these kinds of documents on a daily basis and asking them for assistance in deciphering a word you're desperately stuck on is something they'll be used to doing. If it's a big archive then you could ask if there's a records specialist for that area that you can talk to if you want a bit more guidance about the next steps in your research.
Oh and if you Google "18th century letters" then you'll find a whole load of photographs other people have taken, which can help you practice your cursive reading over the next few weeks :)
Good luck!
Ledgers and journals. A businessman would record all the sales and payments etc. for the day in a daybook or journal ( journal being based on the French for...daybook). He/she would then transfer what was in the daybook to a ledger, which had different pages for each account. In this period lots of people had accounts with merchants. Farmer John Smith would therefore have a page titled John Smith in the ledger kept by store owner John Brown. Purchases would be logged in with the date, usually preceded by something that looks like "Do:" or "To:" When John Smith came in and paid his account, that would be written in the ledger. There could be an itemized bill, that would look like the account page in the ledger, and John Brown would send it over to John Smith, and when John Smith paid it he often would write a note to that effect on the outside, before folding it and putting into his own household records. Of course, John Smith might sell some butter to John Brown, and that would be listed as a credit. There was also passing of notes: if John Smith had a credit of $10 with John Brown's store John brown might give him a note, an IOU for it. If John Smith needed to pay somebody who had done some work on his farm, he might send him over to John Brown's store with that note, saying, have him give you my $10. If currency was in short supply, notes like this might change hands more than once.
For an age in which often there are few surviving personal letters and other records, ledgers are very useful to get an indication about the household. If a lot of cloth , buttons etc. are being bought, it is an indication that John Smith is married and perhaps has daughters. If he seems to be spending a lot of money regularly for brandy, whiskey ( often sold by the gill, a quarter of a pint) perhaps there are problems.
If you are worried about not being able to read the handwriting, there are now portable handheld scanners that don't cost too much- and some libraries even have them and the staff can help you use them. Don't be afraid to scan a document and then ponder it later- sometimes unclear words have a way of suddenly becoming clear after you stare at them for a bit.