Family History and Indexing

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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Indexing Tips for August

Salt Lake City,Temple Square
taken from roof of Conference Center August 2011
August Indexing Tips
     The 1930 US Census Records were finished in record time with a high degree of accuracy. Now you may be wondering what kind of project you can try that is similar and easy to do. Have you considered the newest Census Record Project?  The 1871 UK Census Records.  They are fun to do and if you would please take the time to read the Project Information and Field Helps you will have no problems getting started.                                                                         
Since I was unfamiliar with the county and town names I found an easy place to go to look them up. Try going to the WIKI @ Family Search.org.  They have a list of place names for England and Wales that you can use and print off. You can get there by going to https://wiki.familysearch.org and looking for UK,England and wales   1871 Census, Additional Helps.  I will put a live link on the right side of this blog page that you will be able to click on and go to that page.    One thing to watch as you index is the abbreviations of place names. Here are some that I have encountered:                                                     Glos =Gloucestershire                                                                         Hants = Hampshire                                            Heref = Herefordshire                                        Herts = Hertfordshire                                        Notts = Nottinghamshire                                      Staffs = Staffordshire                                       Worcs = Worcestershire                                          Wilts = Wiltshire                      
(sorry for the scramble on the listing of county abbreviations on the list above. I can't seem to get it fixed so it displays correctly. Please email me if you can not figure it out)
                               
                                      Occupations are challenging but if you read the field helps it will explain how to index them. The Wiki also has a listing of Old English Census Occupations that I found fun to read, and very usefull.
September Ice Cream Social
The ice cream social scheduled for September 16th in the Edmond 1st and Edmond 2nd Wards has been postponed for a while to give President Baclawski time to recuperate. We still plan on having an ice cream social for all Wards that acheive their indexing goals this year. Those of you who haven't there is still time.
September Indexing in the Quail Creek Ward
The Challenge in on and the QC Ward is going to be working to make their goal of indexing over 31198 names during the month. It can be done and I have faith that as they all work together they can do it!
More about that as the month goes on.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

JULY INDEXING STATISTICS

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS IN OKLAHOMA
July Indexing Statistics
 
The Stake Inidexing Statistics for this month have been pretty low. I think the hot weather has gotten to all of us and I am thankful for the little bit of rain, and cloudy weather that keeps the sun from making it so hot this week-end. Hopefully, we will all get back to indexing at our normal rate so that we can realize our Stake Year-end Goal of 750,000 names. We have 317,729 to go.
As a Stake in the month of July we indexed and arbitrate 42,017 names. Each Wards contribution is listed below; indexing and arbitration are added together:
  • Clinton 334 names
  • Edmond First Ward 10,328 names
  • Edmond Second ward 1484 names
  • OKC Fifth Ward  3133
  • OKC First Ward 3488
  • OKC Fourth Branch 
  • OKC Third Ward 2434
  • Quail Creek Ward 4080
  • Village Ward   216 names
  •  Woodward Branch  6520
  •  
     
    Ice Cream Social Challenge is still on-going  Edmond First and Edmond Second Ward will be having a combined Ice Cream Social on September 16th.
    Wards that still have the opportunity to have an Ice Cream Social for their whole Ward are:  Clinton ( 19344), OKC Third (16414), University Ward (1366), Quail Creek Ward (31198) and Village Ward ( 17226). 
    I do know that the Quail Creek Ward is looking at the Month of September as the month that they Beat their Magic Number of 31198 names and win their Ice Cream Socail.  GO QC !!! Working together as a Ward helps you reach that goal. Weekly reports on their progress will be sent to Apirl Garwood, who is the Ward Indexing Specialist. She will keep the Ward posted on the  progress.
    Top Ten Stake Indexers
    As a new incentive or new challange for all indexers in the Stake we are announcing a new goal.!!!!
    The Top Ten Indexers, that includes indexing and arbitration, in the Stake during this year, will have the opportunity to have dinner with President Graves . This includes the indexer and their spouse, or a friend of their choosing if they have no spouse.
    Location and date/time will be decided and announced later.
    Every month's indexing statistics will be summarized and you will be notifed if you make the list. This is just another way to say thank-you to those who are working the hardest each month. Please know that Everyone will be acknowledged for their efforts at year end. We appreciate all that you do for indexing in the Stake. Each name is important.
    My Accuracy
    Have you tired it yet??It is not a grade, but it will show you how often your indexing work and the final arbitration values match.  You will be able to tell if there are areas you can improve.It helps you to see if any of your batches were returned and what you did wrong.
    Did you know that you can mark values for Review. That means if you are sure you read the project directions and field helps correctly, but the arbitrator still changed your value you can request that it be reviewed. Remember that this is a team effort and Arbitrators are volunteers as well. Don't be afraid to share your thoughts or positive comments. Headquarters uses that feedback to track data and to recognize trends.
     
    Thank you all for your interest and help with indexing. It is truly a wonderful way to spend your free time, helping the Lord so people can use these records to prepare names to take to the Temple.  Just go to WWW.FAMILYSEARCH.ORG   to find out if your ancestors names appear in records that your indexing efforts have made available on-line for free.