This America Writes Home website was establish in 1997 as Letters from Forgotten Ancestors as my private project on my private domain, dogtrot.com. Later I mirrored my letters project and donated the name, Letters from Forgotten Ancestors, to the TNGenWeb Project. My intention, then and now, is to give an insight into lives of our plain folk ancestors by publishing old letters from my collection. A few friends have also contributed letter transcriptions to be published here. For awhile I ran both projects as mirror images of each other. In late 2003 I took America Writes Home offline, it was just too much work maintaining two similar but not identical websites. Since I am no longer affiliated with TNGenWeb Project, I am currently restoring the America Writes Home website.
  I have more un-transcribed letters which will in time be published here. I anticipate scanning some letters and publishing good printable images. One of my original letters has been sold to a descendant, about ten letters have been donated to the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

About United States Copyright and America Writes Home

  There is no copyright on any transcription of any letter found on this website. In fact, any work published before 1923 is considered to be in the public domain. 1923 through 1977 letters published without a copyright notice would be in the public domain due to failure to comply with required legal formalities, those letters would also be copyright free. I believe that scans of our public domain letters to be copyright free. If not, please consider this to be permission granted to use the transcriptions and scans found here.
  What is copyrighted here are the graphics, such as maps, logos, wallpapers, and any modern work of original authorship. If you need to use one of the maps, please ask for permission first.

Letters of the Plain Folk, the Real Vox Populi

  Letters of the rich and famous, especially the royals, the politicians, the generals, the world movers, &c., are much coveted by historians. Far less desirable are the letters of the plain folk, the farmers, tradesmen, craftsmen, and soldiers. A mother’s lament of the death of a daughter doesn’t make for high historic interest but it certainly tells us about the mother, and our ancestors too. Death, disease, slavery, and other many subjects are often found within these old letters. We can learn about life before iPads and video streaming, time when life was more basic, a time when childhood death was prevalent.
  There are many fine collections of old time letters written by some very famous people. American Memory from the U.S. Library of Congress is an example of a repository that deals with notable people, our Founding Fathers and other famous history makers. However, you will not find those letters here.

The Letter Hoard Meets the Marketplace

  Old family letters may be preserved for generations, only to be disposed of by a disinterested family descendant. Some letters may be sold directly to postal history dealers while some may enter the market place through estate sales or even flea market sales. Often, businesses saved their correspondence for decades, only to have it sold when the company closed. An attorney’s lifetime of correspondence may be stored for a century, only to be sold when an attic, a basement, or a warehouse is cleaned out. Some county governments have disposed of boxes of loose papers in order make way for newer records. Occasionally, libraries, archives, and universities have sold some of their letter holdings. Regards of how a letter entered the marketplace, it simply becomes a commodity in our free market system. The seller has no moral or legal obligation to return the letter to a descendant or kinsman of the letter’s author.
  Once a letter enters the marketplace, its price is determined by many factors. Some postal historians collect old letters because of postal markings and the contents of are of lesser importance. Old Dealer states on his website...

Stampless covers are sold by marking not by content … In all cases, assume whatever content is the most mind numbingly boring and uninteresting you could possibly imagine.

  Without a doubt, some sellers have little interest in content, unless it can make an extra dollar. Sellers will often separate a letter from its cover. One seller wrote:

Some of the envelopes have been sold separately as they had more value for the postmarks or stamps and were sold as postal history items.

  Separating the cover from its contents often destroys the connection between the letter’s author and the letter’s intended recipient, a situation that would not sit well with a family historian. Interestingly, the seller quoted above advertises his coverless letters as “Genealogy. ”
  The wide interest of collectors drives the prices up and those prices can be intimidating for a family historian. Be aware that postal history dealers want to buy low and sell high.
  One good source for old letters is eBay. The eBay categories, Postal History and Ephemera are a good starting places.

Transcribing Old Letters
  An author’s vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, grammar, knowledge, intelligence, manual dexterity (handwriting skills) and even his state of mind will have an effect on his work. Of course some authors are dyslexic which incidentally also applies to some artists. Transcribers work with the author’s product, hopefully the transcribers won’t introduce anomalies to the transcriptions but bear in mind, all transcriptions are subjective.

Old letters can be fragile, handle them carefully.  

Wash your hands before you touch the letters.  

Lightweight white cotton gloves are helpful too.  

Use archival-safe, acid-free, nonstick sheet protectors. Avery makes them.

Write out the entire letter trying to be as accurate as possible.

Do not spend to much time a seemingly impossible word. Leave an underscored blank space like this: _______

If you think you have a word right, but you are just not quite comfortable with it, add an asterisk after it like this: word*

Read your first full transcription for context. Work on one word at a time.

Fred Smoot,  (Contact)