Welcome to the Transcribimus Homepage. Transcribimus is a network of volunteer transcribers who take hand written documents of our early Vancouver history and transcribe them into a searchable state available for free to the general public and researchers.
This entire initiative would not be possible without our volunteer transcribers and our sponsors who are also critical to the success of the project. We thank them!

What’s New?

April / May 2021:

  • Cathy Harmer has transcribed Vancouver City Council minutes from March 25, 1895
  • Darrin Pezer / Proactive Building Maintenance has transcribed Vancouver City Council minutes from September 3, 1895 and April 20, May 4, May 11, May 18, & June 1, 1896
  • Gerald Soon has transcribed Vancouver City Council minutes from April 29, May 13, & September 3, 1895
  • Hal Bell-Irving has transcribed Vancouver City Council minutes from September 4, 1895
  • Joanne McCormick has transcribed minutes from May 11 & 18, 1886 and Sept 13 & 20, 1887
  • Krystyna Richards has transcribed Vancouver City Council minutes from March 30, 1896

To see more recently published sets of Vancouver City Council Minutes click here to check them out

Media

We are so pleased to have been featured in the following media:

We hope you will enjoy exploring your history through our website. There is so much more to do. We hope to expand our service to other handwritten documents of our history.

Sponsors

Since 2012, many people have contributed to the work of transcribing the minutes of early Vancouver City Council meetings.  We have had donations of labour and technical advice, as well as cash donations.  These have helped to keep our web site going and to keep track of our thousands of photographs and nearly 600 transcripts produced so far.

Sam Sullivan and the Global Civic Policy Society founded our project and continue to help us get the word out.  Christopher Stephenson and Margaret Sutherland contributed foundational work.  Bruce Macdonald (author of Vancouver: a Visual History), Darrin Pezer of Proactive Building Maintenance and Negar Khatami at Katami Designs have helped to keep us going.  Our wonderful volunteers look at photographs of the original handwritten pages and contribue a draft they type in from the handwriting.

Others, such as The Oppenheimer Group, Shirley Barnett, Arnold Silber, Kip Woodward, and Bruno Wall have generously sponsored the transcription and publication of one year of Vancouver City Council minutes.

Sponsorship opportunities

We would like to invite you to consider sponsoring one year of Vancouver’s history; perhaps in honour of an ancestor or current family member.  Your name (and the name of the person you are sponsoring in honour of) would appear at the top of every document for the year and go into the permanent record. 

Get in touch here for more information.

Sponsors for a year of City Council minutes transcription

1888 – sponsored by The Oppenheimer Group

1889 – sponsored by Shirley Barnett

1890 – sponsored by Arnold Silber

1891 – sponsored by Shirley Barnett

1892 – sponsored by Kip Woodward

1900 – sponsored by Bruno Wall

Volunteer Transcribers

Perhaps you might consider becoming a volunteer yourself. Together our remarkable volunteers have contributed 335 transcriptions of early Vancouver City Council minutes, as follows:

Master Scribes (more than 50 sets of minutes):
Darrin Pezer/Proactive Building Maintenance (59)
Gerald Soon (69) achieved Master Scribe rank December 2019
Anonymous (55)

Journeyman Scribes (25-50 sets of minutes):
Chris Stephenson, MLIS (45)
Donna Kynaston (26)
Krystyna Richards (27) achieved Journeyman Scribe status December 2019
Joanne McCormick (28) achieved Journeyman Scribe status September 2020

Working Scribes (5-24 sets of minutes):
Krystyna Richards (17)
Martha Hazevoet (12)
L. Ellema (10)
Christine Cathcart (7)
David Laing (5)
Linda Evans (9)
Leah Minuk (8)
Cathy Harmer (5) achieved Working Scribe status Oct. 26, 2020
Susan Willows (5)
Chris Mizzoni (5) of Nitzy’s Hockey Den
YVR Mike (5) new transcriber as of July 2020

Apprentice Scribes (1-4 sets of minutes):
Rachel Tsui (4) new transcriber as of June 2020
Bronwen Cripps (4)
Judy Lam Maxwell (4) of Historical Chinatown Tours
Leesa Poffenroth (4)
Sue Bryant (3)
Mary-Ann Capistrano (4)
Sharon Mowat (3) new transcriber as of December 2019
Alan Hart (2)
Gent Ng (2)
Jenn Ashton (1) Jenn’s website
Brenda Chapman (2)
John Belshaw (1) https://www.vancouver-historical-society.ca/
Jordan Cripps (1)
Siobhan Devlin (1)
Anita Dos Santos (2)
Karen Gillespie (1)
Alannah Hall (1)
Devon Harlos (1)
Glen Hodges (1) manager of Mountain View Cemetery
Tegbir Kaur (1)
Sara Keay (1)
Maria Klukova (1)
Andrew S. Liebman (1)
Andrea Mitchell (1)
Mary Eleanor Norris (1)
Michelle C (1) new transcriber as of June 2020