Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 28

This has been a very interesting week. I had so many emotions with the passing of President Hinckley. The funeral has come and gone. My daughter Marie and I attended the viewing on Thursday. We went at 2pm so there wasn't a long line or anything to wait in. There were lots of people but you just kept moving along in the line. You kinda of wove your way through the Conference Center until you came to the place where he lay. It felt just like being in the temple. They had lovely choir music playing in the background, his casket was surrounded by flowers and the room had busts of previous Presidents of the Church. Very, very beautiful, I was so happy that I came. I was wiped out after all the walking but it was so worth it.

My son Philip, that is on a service mission at the LDS Motion Picture Studio, went with other missionaries there. He also came away with that same feeling of having been in the temple. You could just feel the angels surrounding him or maybe it was the Savior - it was just special.

As I looked upon President Hinckley he appeared peaceful with a smile on his face. He also looked so small and frail. All the power and authority and dynamic presence was missing from the shell he left behind. His spirit was not in that body anymore but you knew it still lived and stood nearby. I will cherish these memories of this past week along with my memory of President Hinckley.

Philip was given two tickets to attend the funeral due to being a missionary. It was nice they included parking passes for them too. So he then had the dilemma of who to take with him. My husband and I suggested that he take his sister Marie so he did. She was just so happy to go. They reported back that the spirit was very strong during the whole services. It will be a cherished memory for them. Once again the same feeling as if you where in the temple was there.

I watched the broadcast of the funeral on TV with my husband. At one point I got up and waved my cane in tribute to him - I just had to do that. It's so nice that the funeral is being re-broadcasted so many times out here. I have already watched it 2 1/2 times.

But, now it is back to the business of furthering this work. I decided that since church doesn't start until 11am for me now that I would do my FamilySearch Indexing before I went. I think this will be the standard for this year.

One of the things I haven't taken advantage of was using the Goal setting tool in FamilySearch Indexing. Today I set my personal goal to do 400 names by the end of the month. It said I needed to index 19 names per day, but since I have only indexed on Sundays it will be 100 names per week. I did three batches of the New York 1850 U.S. Federal Census - I was so excited that NY was available. I looked at my status and it said: 126 names submitted, 274 names to do. My new Target Rate is 13 names per day, that's kinda cool. My grand total for names indexed is 2808. I feel good that I can obtain my goals this month.

There were two messages from Headquarters for us this week. The first:

From: Headquarters
Subject: Important information for Indexing 1850 U.S. Census - General
Date: 31 Jan 2008

PLEASE NOTE:

Here are a few things to keep in mind while working onthe 1850 U.S. Census

• Some batches have two pages side-by-side with 42 records each. Please index all 84 records with the line numbers as they are recorded on the image. Arbitrators: Please check to see if there are two pages included in your arbitration batch and, if so, confirm that both pages were indexed by Key A and Key B.
• Index given names and surnames as they are written on the document. Do not expand abbreviation Do stands for ditto. If a field contains this or similar signs of repetition, type the actual information from the field above.
• If a Canadian province or territory is listed in the Place of Birth column, type this information in the State or Territory field.
• If an unusual fraction was written in the Age column, such as 1/48 or 1/84, mark the field as unreadable. If weeks or days are noted, index the number as days. For example, 2 weeks would be indexed as 14d.
  
• Some batches may have two family numbers and dwelling numbers for each household; one set of numbers written next to the head of household, and another set of numbers written on the next line, even though the individuals have the same surname. Please index the numbers that are on the same line as the head of household, if they are not crossed out, and do not index the second set of numbers. If the first set of numbers is crossed out, please follow the project-specific instructions. Overall, the goal is to have the same family number and dwelling number for the entire family.
  

Thank you for all you do to create these important indexes!

Here is the second message from Headquarters this week.

From: Headquarters
Subject: 1850 U.S. Federal Census - Mortality Schedules
Date: 01 Feb 2008

Here are a few tips to remember while working on Mortality Schedules in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census:

• If your batch contains a document that is not specifically labeled Mortality Schedule, all of the fields may not match exactly to the fields on the indexing portion of your screen. In this case, please type all information that can be gleaned from the document into the appropriate fields. Press Ctrl+B to mark any required fields that are not included on the document as blank. Press Tab to skip fields that are not required, and are not included on the document.
• Some batches in this project cover additional years, besides 1850. Please index as much information as possible into the appropriate fields.
• When slaves were included on the schedules, their information was recorded a few different ways. First, the owner's name may have been recorded instead of the slave's anme. In this situation, index the owner's name in the Given Name and Surname fields. Second, the slave's given name may have been recorded, but the surname was not. Index the name in the Given Name field and mark the Surname field as blank. Third, the owner's name and slave's name were both included on the same line. Please index both names by following these steps:
  

Type the name of the slave in the Given Name and Surname fields, marking the Surname field as blank if it was not provided.


Index the rest of the information from the record, except the owner's name.


Go to the next entry line.

On the toolbar, click Edit.

Click Insert Record Before.

Type the name of the owner in the Given Name and Surname fields on the new line.

Index the rest of the information from the record, except the slave's name.

Thank you again for all you do!

I'm really glad that I have been typing in these messages for you each week. It really helps me to remember the instructions. I didn't know that in the 1850 U.S Federal Census that you type the Canadian province or territory in the state field. It made me wonder if I have ever had that situation before and if I had done it correctly. Well, it's new information for me. I did have some individuals from Canada but none of them had the province or territory with them. Well that's all for my adventure this week.

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