Help with Indexing the 1930 U S Census Records
Recently I was working in the 1930 Michigan Census records and found
an unusual thing. In the field for Father's place of birth it said "FULL", and in
the Mother's place of birth it said "OTTAWA".
My first thought was to follow the golden rule of indexing, you know "Index what
you see". But I was wrong!!
After opening the tab for "Project Information", which is located on the lower right
side of your work sheet, I discovered that there were unique instructions
to deal with this specific situation. It seems there are several families of Native Americans listed in those Michigan Census records and usually what was written in the place name fields was the degree of Blood and the tribe. These terms are NOT TO BE INDEXED. You should enter "BLANK" in those place names.
It is always a good idea to read all the Project Information details when you start indexing a new project. This applies to projects that are similar but maybe in a different state, like census records. Each project is different, and may have unique problems with specific directions. Please take the time to read all helps and project information, it might save you from having a returned batch that wasn't indexed correctly.
I just want you to know how much I appreciate all that each of you do for the indexing program in our Stake. We are doing a great job and together we can reach our goal of 500,000 names in 2011.
Good news for all of you family history slueths. Ancestory. com is going to be available for use again, free, in the Stake Family History Center!
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