Egregious errors on the census manuscript

Here's a reminder of what to do when there are egregious errors on the census manuscript.

If you find an egregious error on the manuscript, leave the field blank, and input the correct information in the Remarks field. You may do this for both AGE and GENDER. Here are a couple of examples.

Age: This is not for a difference of a few years. This is for situations when the manuscript says the individual is 7, but you know he is 80.

Gender: If the manuscript lists Elizabeth as a DAUGHTER and a MALE, then leave the Gender blank, and input the correct information in the Remarks.

If you're not sure, please ask your supervisor.

Leaving a field blank should be a last resort. Make sure you are correct before leaving a field blank. It is difficult for data in remarks to be used.

Names and hints

You've probably noticed that sometimes the names are incorrect, or don't conform to our name rules in the Mil Info. This is because some of this data was collected back when we were still making up the rules.

Sometimes these problems will prevent Ancestry.com from finding hints for your family. We've found that correcting the name, or other information such as gender, will often allow Ancestry to find hints. You can easily make these corrections using "Quick edit" or "Edit this person."

Next time you're having trouble getting hints, give this a try.

Relationships in hospitals, schools, barracks, etc.

We've had some discussions recently about when we should use relationship code 5 Non-Relative or 13 Inmate/Member when the person we're searching for is living in a hospital, asylum, school, ship, etc. Here's what we've decided.

If the person is a patient, inmate, or student use relationship code 13. Also use 13 if a soldier or sailor is living in a barracks or on a ship, since they qualify as members.

If a person is a teacher, headmaster, officer, cook, etc., in a school use relationship code 5. Even though you don't normally have to explain this code in remarks, please do so here. Do the same for doctors, nurses, etc., at hospitals and asylums.

Nuns

After years of never finding Catholic nuns in any of our households, we've come across at least two in the last week. So, we expect that we'll see more.

When inputting inputting nuns, please keep in mind the following guidelines.

• The relationship code is NOT 10-Sibling (unless of course she is a nun who happens to be living in her sibling's household).
• If the nun is living in a convent, the relationship code is 13-Inmate/Member. Please explain it in remarks.
• If she's living in someone's household, the relationship code is 5. Please explain it in remarks.

If this doesn't cover all situations that arise, feel free to ask your supervisor.

Inputting the names of nuns might also be different. If she is listed as Sister Ursula, with no last name, enter it this way.

(BLANK), Ursula (SISTER)

Click Yes to override it when the screens don't like what you've done.

If she is listed with a surname, enter it as you normally would.

Link to another blog

This is an old blog post from The Ancestry Insider, but perhaps it will give you a little insight into the your search results are ranked on Ancestry.

You'll find the post here.

Demo Videos

In case you haven't already done so, please watch our demostraction (combination of demonstration and distraction) videos.

You might want to start with the Veterans' Children Census Demo since it most directly applies to the work you're doing.

Take some time to watch the MSR and Pension videos. They will increase you're understanding of the project and where we get the Mil Info (from the pension record). Having a better understanding of how we collected the data will help you understand how to use it when you're searching the census.

The videos can be found here.

Don't worry, we'll have many more videos for you to watch in the future.

Welcome!

Welcome to the VCC inputting blog. This blog is specifically for Early Indicators project census inputters.

We'll use this blog to post meeting notes, questions & answers, helpful tips, and anything else that might prove useful.

Please check every day for new posts. There won't be new posts every day, but we'd like you to get into the habit of checking frequently. Please let Heather know if you have suggestions for blog content.