Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 18

I'm still doing training at work and plugging along - can't believe I've even gotten to the half-way point in training, 3 more weeks to go WAHOO!! Since my FamilySearch Indexing habit has been well established I was able to jump right in today and do some indexing. I indexed 2 batches of the Vermont 1850 U.S. Federal Census and now have a grand total of 1762 individuals indexed today.

I received the following comment on my blog article last week.

"That's amazing! I've been transcribing for several months and haven't had a single message from HQ (not even the one of the 16th Nov). I wonder what I'm doing wrong!" (Anonymous)

I can see from Anonymous' comment that you thought I was receiving an individual email from FamilySearch Indexing. No that is not the case. FamilySearch Indexing is leaving these messages for us in the "My Messages" section of the program.

When you first log into the program FamilySearch Indexing, you will see a screen that has several sections to it. Here is a break-down of what the program's opening page contains.

• My Works - located in the top of the screen - this is where you download and work on your batches. You have two download options - "Download Indexing Batch" and "Download From..." The first option will assign you a random batch, the second allows you to pick from what current projects are available. This is how I choose batches to index from the 1850 U.S. Federal Census for the state of Vermont. There are a few other buttons under My Works - Work on Batch, Submit Batch, Return Batch and off to the right hand side Work Offline.
• My Messages - below My Works on the left hand side. This is where you can see the latest messages from headquarters - such as the one I mentioned last week "Gratitude and Encouragement". After you have read the messages you can choose to delete them, the button to Delete Message is below the message box.
• My Personal Goal - located on the right hand side. Here you have two options "Set New Goal" and "See My History". In "Set New Goal" you can determine a start and end date and it will help you track you progress and the number of names you would need to do daily to reach that goal. The Indexing Status for those figures is shown in the My Personal Goal section. The other button "See My History" opens a box where you can see the Project names you have worked on, how many names you have indexed in the current month, and the total to date of all individuals you have indexed in a project or as a combined total. I can see I have indexed this month 84 names for the Connecticut 1850 U.S. Federal Census and 294 for the Vermont 1850 U.S. Federal Census. That gives me a combined total of 378 names indexed this month. Combined total of 1762 to date.
• Indexing Web Links - on the right hand side below My Personal Goal. Some handy links are given for the Current or Upcoming Indexing Projects, the FamilySearch Indexing Home Page or FamilySearch Home Page. I just wish they would add the link to the actual indexed images on FamilySearch Labs here.
• Total names indexed: 1762 - Quit a few people miss this little section because it's on the bottom of the screen on the left hand side and the opposite side you will find you Download Complete status bar. The total names indexed gives you the same figure you would find if you went into See My History under My Personal Goal. This is the grand total of names you have indexed to date.
  

In My Messages this week we have the following notice.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Attention: 1871 Canadian Census Instructions
Date: 19 Nov 2007

To All Indexers and Arbitrators

Please note that most of the 1871 Canadian Census batches contain two pages on each document image. The pages were filmed one above the other. Both pages contain 20 records. After you have indexed the first 20 entries, be sure to scroll down and index the following 20. (See Number of Records per Image under Project-Specific Indexing Instructions.) Restart the line numbers beginning with number 1 for the second page on the image.

In the birthplace field, the instructions say to expand the abbreviations only if you are sure what they stand for. Do not assume that the abbreviation O is always Ontario. It could be Ottawa.

The age field must have a letter designation after the number. Type either a "y" to indicate years or an "m" to indicate months for ages that were recorded as a fraction, such as 3/12.

Arbitrators, if you receive a batch of 1871 Canadian Census records that was not indexed completely, please return it by doing the following:

1. From the file menu at the top of the indexing screen, click Reindex Batch...
2. Click the box in front of the Reindex A Key, Reindex B Key, or click in both boxes if neither indexer picked up the second page of 20 records.
3. Click OK.

Thank you very much for helping to create top-quality indexes, and thanks to all of you who are carefully following instructions.

It's been great getting to do FamilySearch Indexing. Since I've been working I find I haven't had the time to hardly do anything else. This past week I was feeling major genealogy withdrawals. I finally did get to do a little genealogy yesterday and I actually found a young child Loesa Jenkins that died 1 Feb 1853 from croup. She was just 2 years, 2 months and 18 days old - how sad. She was Lyman Jenkin and Anice Lapham's first born child.

Census records had helped me find the other 5 children but little Loesa didn't live long enough to get on any census records. It was just by chance I found her mentioned in an old newspaper article. I just felt like crying when I found mention of little Loesa's death. I need to make sure that Loesa gets sealed to her parents now. Can you imagine how long that mother has been without her child sealed to her.

Yes census records are great and help us join many family members together but don't forget to do other types of research out there too. I am just go grateful that with the little time I have had these past three weeks with working full time, that I was able to just put in a few hours yesterday and walk away with a new family member. That doesn't happen often, as I am sure many of you know. I feel like I am being blessed for my efforts in doing the best that I can with the time that I have. Don't forget in your efforts to help others, by doing FamilySearch Indexing, to also work on your own lines. You never know what family member is waiting in line for you to do their work for them. Just do the best that you can with the time that you have and I know your efforts will be blessed too.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!