EstateHistories
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TwitterNew entry in the journal: when a name has three spellings, across two parish registers and an estate book, none of them is wrong.
FacebookEstate Histories will host a transcription clinic for archive volunteers on the 14th. Six places left, by quiet email only.
InstagramWhatever the weather, come to the late reading on the 1st of August. Folders open from 19:00. No introductions, no badges.
BlogApplications open · small grant for one researcher to work alongside Estate Histories on a single family folder for six weeks.

Nora MacKinnon-Gold · Research editor working on Caribbean estate histories, family papers, plantation records, and how those things get written about later.

03.2026 — ongoing · EditionLloyd-Hewett letterbook: editorial transcription, 1812–1869Private family deposit · executor: Naomi Lloyd-Hewett10.2025 — 02.2026 · Research supportPenn-Spence estate ledger reconstructionGrenada · London06.2025 — 12.2025 · EditionManumission registers, eastern Caribbean, 1820–1834Eastern Caribbean04.2024 — 11.2024 · CatalogueTobago family folder · catalogue and editorial notesTobago · Auckland01.2025 — 09.2025 · PublicationOn not making it neat — research method notesAuckland
Reading-room portrait of an executor figure from the Lloyd-Hewett letterbook, used as a frontispiece for the edition

Editorial transcription of a 57-year family letterbook held in private deposit, with cross-reference to two estate inventories and one parish register sequence.

Notes from the desk

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Nora MacKinnon-Gold at her back-room editorial desk — small folders, transcripts, and ledger photographs
Note · 12.05.2026When a name has three spellingsThree spellings of the same person, within twenty-six months, across two parish registers and an estate book. None of them is wrong.
Reading-room portrait of an executor figure from the Penn-Spence estate inventory reconstruction project
Article · 04.04.2026What an inventory will and will not tell youEstate inventories are wonderfully specific about objects, and almost completely silent about the conditions in which the objects were used.
Reading-room portrait of an executor figure from the Lloyd-Hewett letterbook, used as a frontispiece for the edition
Note · 21.02.2026On reading executors' booksExecutors' books are practical documents written by tired people. They reward patience and punish summary.

From the project archive

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09.2023 — 06.2024· Research supportSugar estate inventory recovery, GrenadaGrenada