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Notes from the desk

Journal

Short pieces written between projects. Some are notes on a single editorial decision. Some are longer pieces on the method behind the practice.

  • 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.
  • Nora MacKinnon-Gold reading a folio of 19th century estate correspondence — Estate Histories practice portrait
    Article · 08.01.2026Slow researchI am often asked what my turnaround is. The honest answer is that the document sets the pace, not the calendar.
Estate HistoriesNora MacKinnon-GoldResearch Editor · Estate HistoriesAuckland, New Zealand
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© Nora MacKinnon-Gold · Estate Histories practice.Correspondence by appointment, in fragments, slowly.