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Before we close this out, perhaps we can decide on some "standards" with which we can refine this transcription. I'm thinking of Ellen's various use of script upper-case and large lower-case capitalization. The two uses are clear at times with "A" and a large "a" at the beginning of a phrase - alone or at the start of a word such as "at". She often uses "F" to capitalize "father", while never seems to use a large "f"; however, she never uses "M" in "mother", as she does in "Mary", and only occasionally does it seem she uses a large "m" - the same holds for "meeting".
And then there's the use colons and semicolons ... I'm inclined to believe that they are all semicolons, but it occasionally looks as if the colon is definitely intended.
It may not make that much difference, in the end, since one primary product of these transcriptions is a searchable version of the document, but we also want to reflect other aspects of the writing.

I've had the impression that Ellen uses semi-colons in much the way that they are intended, most of the time, but sometimes just as an alternative comma. Colons, to me, she seems to use as an alternative to a full stop. Sometimes they occur as the final punctuation mark in a day's entry. This is confused by the fact that she does also use commas and full-stops.
Regarding capitals, I've tried to reflect what I believe to be Ellen's variable use of them, as providing the most authentic transcript possible.
Does the Museum have a view on this?

That sounds good - I won't edit those as I have been doing. I haven't heard from the Museum, though they do seem to get around to comments/discussions like this eventually.

I still haven't figured out where Avondale is. Do you have any idea? There is an area in nearby PG County with that name and they do seem to stop there when going to Baltimore or Annapolis, but they hop there so often that it seems it must be closer to Sandy Spring.

Hey there, sorry to be dropping in infrequently as of late. I'll look into Avondale! Regarding the transcription standards; we definitely want to replicate as closely as possible Ellen's writing style, so keeping her capitalizations as they are would be preferred. Same for the semicolons/colons, we want to preserve the original punctuation.

That's great - I think we had pretty much reached a consensus on this which will fill the bill. Afraid I've no idea about the location of any of the places as I'm across the ocean in North Wales, but would be very interested to see if any sort of map of the Stabler environs is ever produced.

I have a small two-sided poster with a map and other information covering historic Sandy Spring. It looks to have been published nearly 30 years ago. I'll see about making a digital image of it and get it to you.

That's really kind of you, I'll really look forward to seeing it. Will you need my email address?