Transcription Challenge

Welcome to Transcription Challenge!

Occasionally, we encounter some handwriting that leaves us stumped. Here, you can help us decipher some of this curlicue cursive and scratchy scrawl so that our databases are as accurate as possible! Our current challenges are boxed in red in the images below.

  • To enlarge the challenge, simply move the cursor over the image and it will be magnified.
  • Use the comment field at the bottom of the screen to offer your transcription suggestions.
  • If there are multiple challenges listed, please include the image number.
  • If there are multiple red boxes within an image, please label your suggestions a, b, c, etc., from top to bottom/left to right.

Comments will be approved Monday through Friday between the hours of 9am-5pm EST. New challenges will be posted as soon as we find them!


We are looking for the names, occupations, and locations boxed in red. Please label your suggestions as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

All of these pages are from the Old Stone Bank in Providence, RI. Not all of the entries have occupations or birth locations recorded, and the order of this information changes from line to line and page to page, so sometimes it isn’t clear if something is a residence, a birth location, or an occupation.


#1 – Last Name


#2 – Last Name


#3 – Last Name


#4 – First Name


#5 – Either a location or an occupation