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Traditionally, Chinese text was written in vertical columns with characters in each column written from top to bottom and columns starting on the right side of each page and going left.<ref>Wikipedia contributors, "Written Chinese," in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Chinese, accessed 1 February 2018.</ref> Most genealogical records will have a similar layout, which means the title and cover pages for such records will be in the final pages, rather than what we normally think of as the first pages in the Western sense. In modern times the Western layout of writing characters horizontally from left to right has also been adopted to a degree, but this format is uncommon in earlier records. | Traditionally, Chinese text was written in vertical columns with characters in each column written from top to bottom and columns starting on the right side of each page and going left.<ref>Wikipedia contributors, "Written Chinese," in ''Wikipedia: the Free Encyclopedia'', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Chinese, accessed 1 February 2018.</ref> Most genealogical records will have a similar layout, which means the title and cover pages for such records will be in the final pages, rather than what we normally think of as the first pages in the Western sense. In modern times the Western layout of writing characters horizontally from left to right has also been adopted to a degree, but this format is uncommon in earlier records. | ||
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==Radicals== | ==Radicals== | ||
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For someone seeking a basic understanding of Chinese writing sufficient to decipher characters identified in genealogical records, a foundation in both the stroke order and radical-based formation of characters is particularly helpful. Such is especially the case in deciphering names of ancestors from hardcopy records, digital images, microfilm and so forth that does not allow the characters to be merely copied and pasted into an online transliteration program (e.g. [https://translate.google.com/ Google Translate], for one).<br> | For someone seeking a basic understanding of Chinese writing sufficient to decipher characters identified in genealogical records, a foundation in both the stroke order and radical-based formation of characters is particularly helpful. Such is especially the case in deciphering names of ancestors from hardcopy records, digital images, microfilm and so forth that does not allow the characters to be merely copied and pasted into an online transliteration program (e.g. [https://translate.google.com/ Google Translate], for one).<br> | ||
==Romanization== | ==Romanization== | ||
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