Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 58

Where did the week go? I can't believe I missed indexing this past week. I have no idea what I was doing that was so important that made me miss doing that. I did attend the UGA Conference held at the Family History Library in Salt Lake Friday and Saturday. It was very good by the way, and the price was right - FREE! That still doesn't explain why I couldn't index in the beginning of the week. My, my how time does fly.

I am back on track at indexing today and that is the important thing. There were two messages from headquarters since the last time I indexed.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Semimonthly Message
Date: 02 Sep 2008

Indexing reminders and tips:

Record Type

For projects that require putting in a record type, click the Record Type field to have the drop-down arrow appear. Then you can choose the record type and the associated template will come up.

Page Number

If there is a page number on an image, but you cannot read the handwriting, it is too faded, or for any other reason you are not sure what to index, go to previous and/or next image to compare the page numbers.

Indexing Names

Remember to index any middle initials with the given name. For example, the name Robert C. Smith would be indexed as:

Given Name: Robert C

Surname: Smith

Printing Messages

FamilySearch indexing does not currently have a print funtion for My Messages. To print or save these messages, you will need to do the following:

1. Click once in the message body.
2. Press Ctrl+A to highlight and select the message.
3. Press Ctrl+C to copy the highlighted text to the computer clipboard.
4. Open your word processor (such as Word or Word Pad) or a new e-mail document.
5. Click once in the text body of the new document.
6. Press Ctrl+V to paste the copied text.
7. You can then print, save, or e-mail the message.
   

The second message.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Minnesota - 1870 US Federal Census
Date: 12 Sep 2008

To All Indexers:

There are some important differences between the Minnesota - 1870 US Federal Census project and the rest of the 1870 Census projects.

*Many batches in this project will contain two pages on an image instead of one. This means that you will be responsible for indexing 80 names instead of 40. Please remember to check the entire image (scroll down and left) to make sure all of the records are indexed before you submit your batch.

Often there is no information on the left page of the image and at first the image may appear blank. Check to see if there is information on the right page. If there is, start indexing on line 1 of the right page. If not, mark the image as a black image.

*There are agricultural records, produce records, etc, included in this project. Mark these records as No Extractable Data image(s). To do so:

• On the toolbar below the image on the indexing screen, click the down arrow in the box labeled Document Type.
• Select No Extractable Image.
• Click Yes to the warning messge.

I was really anxious to see if there were any New York projects left to index. Someone the other day mentioned to me that there were hardly any English projects left to index. That had me concerned. Lucky for me there appears to be plenty of English projects for me to pick from, and YES! New York is among them. I hurriedly select the New York 1870 US Federal Census project.

It didn't take me long to index two batches. I indexed 80 individuals making my grand total of indexed records to date as 8537. I would of done more it's early in the evening, but our friends invited us over for dinner tonight so I gotta run.

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