Helpful Hints

(My three great aunts: Gussie, Lizzie, Ellen)

Hints to help you Index Texas Birth Records:

1. There are usually 20 images in one batch - sometimes there are two records on one image. You may have to add a line if you have two records. Go to TOOLS to add lines

2. Sometimes there is an original birth record and an ammended record for the same child. Do not indicate that one is a duplicate in the record type. They should all be normal even if they are for the same child. Index each record seperately.

3. If the child was unnamed, do not enter the father's surname as the childs surname. Enter in Blank for the childs surname.

4. Do not add the county name if it is not written on the birth record, even if you know what it should be.

Always read the field helps and the project information to know what to do.

Remember the GOLDEN RULE of Indexing: "Enter what you see", no more no less.

There is one exception to the golden Rule: Put in the complete place name if it is written on the document. If the name of the state or county is abbreviated, and you know what it should be, enter the complete name. If you can not determine, from the drop down list, what it should be then enter the abbreviated form, with out the period.

Answers to Indexing Questions

Where to find Help and Answers to your indexing questions

1. Read the Project Instructions: click on the tab on the right side of your work screen - each project has different directions

2. Please Read the Field Helps : the information changes on the right side of your data entry area, each time you put data into a new field. At the bottom of the field helps you will see a link ( in blue) that takes you to an example. Check this link to see if you are using the correct page number. The page numbers they want are not always the "formal" page number. As an arbitrator I see this as the common mistake that indexers are making.

3 Go to HELPS : You can get there from your work sheet by clicking on F1 while in the indexing program. You may also go to helps on your indexing Home page ( boys on bikes).

4. Ask a Question: go to http://indexing.familysearch.org : you will find answers to many questions by just typing in your question in the Ask a Question Box. A document should open with the answer. You can print off these documents for future reference.

5. Go to Resource Guide on Home page: (boys on bikes) click on Help and it opens a list of resources for all levels of Indexers, ie., Indexers, Arbitrators. Under Indexers there is a link to a "Users Guide" which is 84 pages of useful directions about the basics of indexing. You can print off all or part of it, or just read what you are interested in. It has been a big help to me in learning how to do indexing. Try opening it up and looking at it's contents.

Happy Indexing !! Call me if you have problems 405-367-7159 or SLC 1-866-406-1830

Indexing Progress in July

We invite all ages to join us in our Stake Efforts to Index 100,000 names by December 31, 2010.

The young sisters at the left are Sylvia McLendon and Kaiulani Long of the Oklahoma City First Ward, who both attended the Stake Indexing Fair at the Surrey Hills Building in June.

Our leader, with the most names indexed in July, so far, is Susan Crane of the Village Ward. Susan has indexed 3644 names by July 16th!

For those of you who need help, please call Lois Gilbert at 405-367-7159 and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible with an answer to your questions.

Keep up the good work, it is greatly appreciated.

Helpful Hints

ADDING MORE LINES TO YOUR BATCH

There has been an increasing number of batches returned by the arbitrators. The most popular reason to return a batch is that all the data was not entered. This problem can be eliminated by reducing your image size when you are checking for the "image type". Try reducing the size of the image to 37%. This will allow you to see most of the image. It will also enable you to see if there is a second page on the right. This is the general case with State Census records.

Once you determine that you have two pages to index, you can see how many lines you will need on your worksheet below. At this point you can go up to TOOLS at the top of your page and click on "Records per image" then open "Number of Records" to see what your worksheet is set for. It might be set at 50 when you need 100. So Click on the up arrow to increase the number 50 to 100. Then go down to your worksheet and scroll to the bottom and make sure there are 100 lines there.

If the original document image has 100 lines, but only 80 of them have anything written on them, then you must use "ctrl blank" to put blank in those 20 blank data lines. EVERY LINE has to have something in it or you can't submit the batch. Be sure you put "BLANK" on the line number that is blank, not at the end of the batch. Unless, of course, all the blank lines are at the end of the batch.

If you need help, call me 367-7159 or email me lgmgilbert2@yahoo.com and I will try to answer your questions. Thank you for your efforts.