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.

June Statistics OKC Stake

The Stake statistics are in for the month of June

17930 names indexed in June !

• Clinton Ward 590 names - 3 people indexing


• Edmond 1st Ward 492 names - 2 people indexing


• Edmond 2nd Ward 1432 names - 2 people indexing
• OKC 5th Ward 177 names - 2 people indexing
• OKC 1st Ward 9,031 names - 19 people indexing
• OKC 3rd Ward 2030 names - 1 person indexing
• Quail Creek Ward 1626 names - 8 people indexing
• Village Ward 2302 names - 5 people indexing
• Woodward 100 names - 1 person indexing

Keep up the good work!!! The numbers for this month are impressive. Last month the Stake submitted 4,934 names.

At our current rate we could easily make the Stake Goal of 100,000 names by January 1, 2011 !!!!

If for some reason you know that more people were indexing in your Ward than listed above, please have them check to make sure they have put in their Stake name and Ward name on their personal info page. If they haven't done that they are in a Genearl Account, and our Stake doesn't get credit for their work.

You can get to your personal information page by going to http://indexing.familysearch.org/ and on the home page ( boys on Bicycles) SIGN IN on the upper right hand corner. To edit your page, scroll to the bottom, click edit. After you add your Stake and Ward names, be sure to save before closing the page.

Stake Goal for 2010

100,000 NAMES

That is the Goal the Stake Presidency has set for Oklahoma City Indexers in 2010.

I know that we can do it if we work together. Our current number of submitted names, as of June 22, is 34,372. We now have 53 active submitters working in our Stake and more being added weekly. We gained about 20 new indexers during our one day fair, more are signing on each day. Many others are re-activating their accounts and starting to index again. If you know of any one who might be interested in signing up to index, please encourage them to contact the family history consultants or Indexing Specialists in their Ward.

Upgrade to Indexing web site

On June 15th, 2010 the Indexing web page was down for upgrading. If you have logged on since that time, using your desk top icon, then you do not have the latest version for indexing and may encounter some problems.
It is recommended that you go to the main page ( boys on bikes) through this link: http://indexing.familysearch.org/ and click on "Begin Indexing". This will upgrade your current program and you will be then able to go back and use your desk top icon to get to your work page.
If for some reason you get an error message that says " Server Unavailable" you will some more help getting the upgrades. My suggestion is to follow these steps:

1. From the homepage click on ASK A QUESTION on the top.

2. Type in the ask a question box, "Server Unavailable".

3. This will open the automated support utility and you can scroll down to the question that is numbered # 103272 and click on it.

4. When #103272 opens you will be asked to choose several options. Only choose the first three options which are: SYNC CLOCK, REINSTALL JAVA and REINSTALL INDEXING. This may take some time.

5. When it is finished you should be able to go into your desk top icon again, and begin indexing.If you are still having problems please feel free to call me or the toll free number for SLC help desk, which is 1-866-406-1830

I hope that these instructions are of help to you and that we can keep our great indexing efforts going in the Stake. The statistics for each Ward will be provided to your High Priest Group Leaders and Stake Presidency each month.