More on death certificates

Please look at this example of a death certificate. After Cause of Death and contributing causes, this certificate includes "Other Significant Conditions." The information from this section or similar sections on other death certificates should be entered in the Remarks field on the Death screen. Since we are a health study, this is valuable information that we would like to collect. We don't have a field for it, because it doesn't appear often.

Clarifications and reminders

Here are a few things some inputters are confused about or are forgetting. If you're unsure about something, please consult your manual or ask. It is OK to ask questions. It is better to ask when you're unsure than to correct mistakes later.

• If the soldier has no children, please note this on your input log. This is not the same as being unable to find any of the children on the census, which you may also note on the log.

• There is no need to fill in the finds (X) and no finds (NF) on the census log. I will do that electronically later.

• EVERYONE should be tracking inputting times: start time, stop time, and total time. This is per RecId, you do not have to record a separate time for each child. Your average time per RecId should be under 4.5 hours.

• Don't forget to mark the soldier COMPLETE when you're finished working on him.

• Checkers, please make sure you write your name at the top of the checks, so we can easily see who did the checking.

• Open and review EVERY TAB on the Mil Info. It is important to know all of this information.

• If you think you've found a DUPLICATE soldier (that is, you think you've searched for this guy before), stop work on him and notify me. I will let you know how to proceed.

• We've mentioned this before (it had its own post), but it's still happening frequently. If you are not 100% sure of the two-digit state or country code, LOOK IT UP IN YOUR MANUAL. Being 99% sure is not good enough. Here are some of the more recent mistakes: IO for Iowa (it's IA), MI for Missouri (it's MO, and MI is Michigan), AK for Arkansas (it's AR, and AK is Alaska), SW for Switzerland (it's SZ, SW is Sweden), and CA for Canada (it's CD, and CA is California). 

• Check ages for infants in the work originally input for the soldier. The fraction that was input will not show up on our screens. If the baby is 2/12, it will appear as 2.

• You are never wrong to type what you see. But, if the manuscript says something like City of Springfield (under town or incorporated place), you don't need to type "City of." If it says Springfield City, and you're not sure if City is part of the name, include it. Again, it's always correct to type what you see. Checkers, you don't have to tell new inputters to include "City of."

2015 Payroll schedule

For your easy reference, here is the 2015 payroll schedule.

Payroll Date	Hours Due Friday, 5 pm	For Dates
7/24/15	7/17/15	7/2 - 7/17
8/7/15	7/31/15	7/18 - 7/31
8/21/15	8/14/15	8/1 - 8/14
9/4/15	8/28/15	8/15 - 8/28
9/18/15	9/11/15	8/29 - 9/11
10/2/15	9/25/15	9/12 - 9/25
10/16/15	10/9/15	9/26 - 10/9
10/30/15	10/23/15	10/10 - 10/23
11/13/15	11/6/15	10/24 - 11/6
11/27/15	11/20/15	11/7 - 11/20
12/11/15	12/4/15	11/21 - 12/4
12/24/15	12/18/15	12/5 - 12/18

Be careful

You may have noticed that Ancestry has been making a lot of changes. With changes, often come problems. Several people have noted that sometimes the highlighting is wrong on a census manuscript. That is, the wrong family is highlighted. Sometimes it happens immediately, other times it happens after you move away from the image to get a page number then go back again.

Please be careful, and make sure you're inputting the correct family.

Time sheets

I just asked the Bureau about time sheets. We no longer have to submit paper time sheets. Electronic time sheets are due by 5 pm on Friday. Remember to save, batch, and certify. If you don't submit your time sheets correctly, I will not be able to see them. So I won't be able to tell if you made a mistake or if you just forgot to submit your time sheet.

Please check your pay stubs for the next couple of pay periods. Let me know as soon as possible if you're not paid for all the hours you worked.

What do we consider a "death certificate?"

There have been several questions lately about the Death screen and particularly about the Personal Information and Parent Information sections for which we take only information from death certificates.  

A death certificate is any official death record, whether a detailed state/municipal index or something called "Death Record," that records information that is normally found on a death certificate, particularly cause of death.

Below are examples of records we consider to be death certificates for which you may mark the death certificate box on the Death screen and fill out the Personal Information and Parent Information sections.

Example 1: Here is a LINK to a death record we consider to be a death certificate.  Note, these records are sometimes double-sided, so make sure you look at the second page.

Example 2: Here is a LINK  to a death index that can  be considered a death certificate. This information looks like it has been transcribed from the death record.

Example 3: Here is a  Link that comes from a Report of deaths from Hamilton, Ohio.  This can count as a death certificate as well.

Example 4:  This Funeral record would count as death certificate. Link It has death cause and parents' names, date of death, doctor's name.


NOT A DEATH CERTIFICATE:

Example 1: Here is a death record with parents' names, and age at death.  Link  This is not detailed enough to be a death certificate, even though it is a state death record.

Example 2: state index (not detailed) This is just an index, and does not contain enough information to be considered a death certificate.

Example 3: obituary index This is an index for obituaries and contains a link to the text of the obituary. It has useful information, but it is not a death certificate.

One additional note. Please do not use Find A Grave and obituaries to fill in information on the Personal Information and Parent Information sections of the Death screen.

Remember, just because you're not inputting a document as a death certificate, doesn't mean it's not good information. You'll still save it to your tree and use the information for searching and matching people.

Clarifying a few more things that need clarifying

I just want to clarify a few more things that we've noticed recently.

• If an individual died in the census year, but before the census was taken, mark that decade as not searched (black X). I cannot change the purple gravestone without changing the death date.
• If an individual was born in the census year, but not until after the census was taken, mark that decade as not searched (black X).
• If you've marked the MilIn? or Mar? columns as found, but realize you made a mistake, just click them again. They will turn back to red Xs.
• Before marking a soldier complete, scroll through the Grid looking for red Xs. You should only have red Xs in the MilIn? and Mar? columns. If you have them in any census decade or the death column, then you are not finished with that family.

As of yesterday afternoon, you've finished 5% of the Project 1 database. Good job. I also noticed that the work seems to be getting completed quicker. Keep up the good work!

Union Army Veterans paper

Many of you will remember that Professor Wilson came to the office to talk about what the research and data collection all of you do gets used for. Here is a link to the paper he shared with us as well as presented at the recent PAA meeting.

A note to checkers

Here are some new rules for checking (in addition to the old rules).

• Always fill out a check sheet even if there are few or no mistakes.
• Enter each household, even if no mistakes were found. This lets us know how many households were checked.

So a practically perfect check might look like this.

Name, RecId, Checked by etc

HH0  Charles (03), Age: 54, not 45

HH1 OK

HH2 OK

HH3 OK

You may also indicate that the person did a great job.

Accuracy counts

We mentioned in a previous post that speed counts. Speed is very important. If we're not fast enough, then we won't finish the work in time. But accuracy counts, too. Accuracy in finding the correct person, and accuracy in entering all the data into the screens. If the data are not accurate, then they can't be trusted.

Everyone is working hard, but we are noticing lots of little things in the inputting. Before you hit submit, take a few seconds to look at what you've input, and make sure it looks correct.

Congratulations to . . .

Congratulations to the five inputters who received an extra 30 minutes on their time sheets just for telling me they read this blog. Only six people told me they actually read it. Hmm, what should I take from that?

All inputters are welcome to email me and let me know the kinds of things you'd like to see on this blog. And stay tuned for more opportunities to get credit for extra time.

Just a few things that need clarifying

Here are a few things we've noticed in checks and in conversation. We want to make sure everyone is on the same page.

• Checkers, you don't have to remind our UT inputters to hit complete. They do it after the soldier is checked. UT inputters, you do not have to wait until the soldier is checked to mark complete.
• In the 1850 and 1860 census manuscripts, race is blank for white people, so we should leave it blank in the inputting screens. Our rule is, "If it's there put it in, if it's not leave it out." Back when some of this information was originally input, we did not have that rule. So you will need to clear the field.
• It is all right to abbreviate National Home for Disabled Veteran Soldiers as NHDVS when it is spelled out on the manuscript under institution. You will find this in our standard list of abbreviations in Appendix A of the manual.
• It is also all right to abbreviate farmer as F and laborer as LAB under occupation. These are standard abbreviations found in the manual.
• Sometimes the Find a Grave records won't have a death date. These records cannot be input in our screens, but they should be saved to the Family Tree.
• When Ward says something like WARD 7 PRECINCT 4, enter 7 for Ward and under Total Remarks enter everything -- WARD: WARD 7 PRECINCT 4.
• Be sure to input all available information on the Death screen. Sometimes you will find it on multiple records. Cemetery name and location have been forgotten frequently.

Let me know if you have questions.

Input logs and updates

There seems to be a little confusion about filling out input logs. I think you're all good at adding lines under the name of the soldier and entering the additional households. If there are no children, please indicate that. Most of you write "no evidence of children" on the line below the soldier's name. If there are children, but you found no additional households, please indicate this in some way. Some of you do this and others don't. We probably never asked you to do it, but it does make processing the assignments easier.

Please keep your logs up to date, I use them for the weekly update. For those of you who work offsite, make sure I know which of the soldiers from your assignment have no children. I would like to know this by lunchtime every Wednesday so it can be included in the weekly update.

The first five inputters who email me and tell me they've read this post may add 30 minutes to their time sheets. I'll email the lucky inputters.

State and country codes

We've noticed incorrect state and country codes being used recently. It's not uncommon for this to happen. Please don't assume you know the two-digit code, especially all of you who are new. Here are some commonly confused state and country codes.

• Nebraska is NE not NB, which is New Brunswick.
• Arkansas is AR not AK, which is Alaska. We rarely input AK.
• England is EN not EG, which is Egypt.
• Indian Territory is RT not IT, which is Italy.
• Prussia is PU not PR, which is Puerto Rico.

Bonus fun fact: German states have their own codes. So if the person was born in Bavaria, you may type BV, Brandenburg is BR, etc.

If you're not sure what the correct code is, they can all be found in Appendix A of your manual.

Pension part 4 video!

We've just released the final part in our video demonstration of how to input a Civil War pension record. I hope you enjoy watching it (which, of course, you can do on the clock). Here it is.

Progress report

Here is our progress on Project 1, as of yesterday afternoon.

• 353 total soldiers complete
• 54 soldiers without children who will be removed from the sample
• 299 soldiers with children complete
• 3.5% of the sample complete

Link rates (what percentage of the children you're finding in the census)

Found outside HH0	1910	1920	1930	1940	Death
All children	53.7	60.9	61.1	53.3	63.5
Daughters	53.7	58.2	60.1	53.3	59.7
Sons	58.3	68.8	67.8	59.3	67.7

You're all doing a really good job!

Memory lane

Some of you will remember Cynthia who input census for us before her family moved to England. On her recent trip, Noelle got to spend some time with Cynthia touring Blenheim Palace and grounds.

Speed counts

Just a reminder: Speed Counts!

We have to complete 75 soldiers/RecIds EVERY week to finish the sample within the grant period. We have not done that yet. All those soldiers without children are being removed from the sample, so they don't count. I know there is a lot of checking that's slowing everyone down. If you're not being checked, please work on getting your times down. There are a few of you who've made excellent progress with this. Some of our newer inputters should be working to get their times down.

We should be averaging 4.5 hours per RecId or less. It's easy to figure out since you track your time on your log, and you know how many people you've input on that log. That's math that even I can do.

If everyone continues to work hard, we can go faster and get all this work done.

Just for fun

Here are a some funny statements we've found in some of the documents (mostly surgeons' certificates) of our Civil War soldiers.

• Insomnia caused from over intellectual action or some other emotion of the mind

• No indication of disturbance of brain nutrition from overuse or worry

• Entitled to divorce as prayed for

• Ribs are not claimed and not found to exist

• I am unable to tell how long this man will live, but he now smells like a dead man

• If he would drink less stimulants he would feel better

• Beard grows snug up to eye winkers

• Got typhoid fever for Christmas 1862

• Respiratory organs – no objective evidence of any

• He throws up his lung constant

• Deafness left leg

• Rheumatism of brain and teeth

• Cannot tell a man from a woman if it is cloudy

• The eyes feel constantly as if they were falling from the sockets

• Low specific gravity due to eating freely of watermelons

Just a reminder

Recently we've noticed that checkers want checkees to input "town of . . ." This is unnecessary. You are never wrong to type what you see, but since we're trying to save time and this adds no useful information, you don't need to enter it. If the word town or city is clearly part of the name of the place, go ahead and include it, but typing "town of Boston" isn't needed.

June 1, 2015 Inputters' Meeting notes

For your review are Sandy's notes from our most recent meeting.

EMAILS:

Please read to the bottom of any email that comes in.  The email which had the choice of dates for this meeting also had a link to the newly updated manual that everyone should have received.  Many had not seen this link.  The manual was shared on drop box and is also available on the snap. 

The updated manual is now in the VCC MANUAL tab on the VCC screens.

POW COMPLETE:

The POW sample is finished, so all inputters can add three extra hours on their timesheets.  We’ve started Project 1 and have completed 33 veterans of 8500.  We will work on it until January and then start the USCT sample (4500 veterans) and work on them concurrently.

In order to get all the work done by the end of the grant, we need to complete 75 veterans every week. 

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT PROJECT 1:

Project 1 is the Union Army sample consisting of 8500 white veterans.   All of the veterans’ work in this sample was done as many as 20 years ago when they only searched for the veteran in 1850, 1860, 1900 and 1910, and they did not have ancestry to help with searches.  Some of these veterans were re-done and updated in our Utah office a few years ago in the VCC database and will have grids already made.  For those from our Census Re-Do project (that we call CEN REDO), the grid will be made and  the decades should be filled in with NF or NS.  You shouldn’t spend a lot of time on these except to look for death information. 

For those without grids made (done only once by the original inputter), we will need to search the missing decades as well as look at the soldier’s info already input and make corrections when needed.  Some odd things show up:

·         NY sometimes turned into OH
W is marked for race in 1850 and 1860 and should be taken out
Relation codes only went up to 9 (for example, sibling and step would have been Relation Code 4 and noted in remarks)

)

One other group from an additional Indiana/Wisconsin sample should be up to current standards with grids made.  Use your judgment if you think something needs updating or ask if you are unsure.

If your veteran does not have children, write NO CHILDREN on the input log so that Heather knows who to drop from the sample and how many she will need to add to keep the number at 8500.  If there are no children, fix any problems with the veteran’s census and fill in any missing decades for him that you can find.  Then stop and complete your input log.  Soldier work should not take longer than one hour.

THINGS YOU’LL NEED TO CHANGE ON PROJECT 1

·         Check the inputting for decades that are already input

·         Make sure it’s the right guy

·         Add the URL to the screens and save the decade to your veteran in the tree

·         If the URL is in the remarks box, move it to the URL box (we didn’t used to have a URL field)

·         For 1850 and 1860, take off W in race

·         In 1850 and 1860 look at attended school and make sure it was marked.  Often it didn’t get marked.

·         Take out the recidnum from the remarks

·         If in 1880, head of household isn’t marked 1, please mark it.

·         If the child was given a fraction for age, it will not show up.  Please fix it.  Fractions less than one are OK.

·         If the soldier shows up twice and the father is missing, this is probably a veteran from the Walker data. It might have other strange things too. If you don’t think you can fix it, please let someone know who can help you.

·         If anything is confusing, please ask questions.

·         Some of those done in Utah under CEN REDO did not have the MAR? column.  We added that option later.  You should double check that column for those who already have grids made.

We can’t assign you an entire company because Dora wants them all searched in a particular order.  We’ll give you a list on your inputting log.  You’ll have to search each by recidnum.

Soon we hope to be able to use Chris’s magic to capture the indexed information into our screens so that we don’t have to input it.  GEDCOM files will be improved also to include the information that was input by the original inputter. 

Chris has made a recent change so that people who are not children or spouses on the grid will be automatically greyed out.

ABBREVIATIONS:

General inputting rule, if it’s there, put it in.  Avenue can be written out.  It is not incorrect to type what you see.  Checkers don’t have to take the time to write down if the inputter didn’t abbreviate.  Street and Saint are both abbreviated as ST, but we should be able to tell what it is based on where it is (St. Augustine vs Augustine St—the first is Saint the latter is street). 

If it says District NO. 6, it’s OK to leave out NO (the abbreviation for number).  Please don’t leave it out if NO stands for north.

FARMS:

FM should be input when it is found on the manuscript under household number.  

In 1930, if the manuscript says in the farm column that all are farms, you can put a Y in the FARM field, or if it says none are farms at the top of the page or in the column, you can input N.

RELATIONS:

Follow the same relation rules for the spouses as you do for the soldier.  Her family should be Parent, Parent and Siblings to her. 

On the manuscript if the relation is blank, you can leave it blank on the screens rather than marking it unknown.  [We used to mark unknown because a blank would default to 0—step child, but this has been fixed.].  Remember, however, that the head of household in 1880 was almost always left blank but should be input as 1, Head of Household.

OBIT SCREEN:

We’ll add a box for the social security number (SSN) so that when you mark social security as a source of death records, a box will open.  Please input the social security numbers. (This has been added, and if you don’t see it yet, clear your cache and open the program again.)

It is OK to calculate the duration of the cause of death if it is not given exactly in the form that you need for the screen.  Occasionally you will see the date of onset and the date of death.  Calculate the duration and input it appropriately.  Don’t worry about the length of contributory cause. 

Names in the death certificate area on the obit screen should be input like all other names:  last name, first name.

When there is detailed Find A Grave information such as an obituary with parents names, places of birth, occupations, etc, do not try to input this information in the death certificate screens.  We decided to only collect this additional information from death certificates in order to cut back on inputting time. The link will be there if we want to go back and get more information later.

Mark all the death sources you find death information in, but only include the two best links. Make sure you input all of the death information you find, even if it isn’t all found on one source.  If you find the FIND A GRAVE source through Ancestry, you mark both of them as sources, but only put the link in for FIND A GRAVE.

GRANDCHILDREN DEATH INFO:

When grandchildren’s death information is found in the same cemetery with the children you are searching, you can input it in the obit screens.  IT IS NOT WRONG if you don’t. Use your discretion.  If you are a slow inputter, don’t input this information. It’s optional for faster people to input this information.  Checkers should not write this up as a mistake if they leave it out. 

EXTRA KIDS:

If you find extra children of the veteran on a reliable source (NOT a public family tree) like Find A Grave, a state census, or a birth record with parents’ names where they are clearly labeled as children, then you may add them to your grid and search for them.  

Do not put in extra grandchildren on the grid if you happen upon their death records, etc.  Grandchildren should only be on the grid when they are found in the census with your child, the veteran or his spouse.

DEATH SCREEN QUALITY CODES:

Please read death screen quality codes in the manual.  Let us know if you have any questions or comments. These are new and we’re still trying to work out the kinks.

OTHER THINGS TO REMEMBER:

Noelle is always right.

Download your trees to the snap when you’re finished with them.