Computer tips

Thanks to Sandy for these handy computer tips!

Opening links

• Click the mouse wheel on a link to open it in a new tab.

• CTL + Clicking on a link also opens it in a new tab

• Right click on link and choose from menu to open link in new tab or window

Enlarging/shrinking screen
This will enlarge beyond even where the mouse wheel zooms in and out on your manuscript.  This is great to zoom in on photos of the gravestones, etc

• CTL + Plus or Minus keys  OR
• CTL + mouse wheel 

Return screen to normal: 

• CTL + 0  (the number)

To reopen a tab you accidentally just closed:

• CTL + SHIFT + T

Use the snipping tool to take a picture of a portion of your screen.  You can then copy and paste to an email if you have a question about a word or something else.   Go to all programs and accessories to find it.  Then you can move it into your tool bar for quick access another time.

MOVING IN THE SCREENS:

You probably can input faster if you try to just type and tab rather than stopping to use your mouse all the time for drop down menus.  You can get through all the inputting without your mouse until you have to click Ancestry and add the URL.

Move backward without the mouse:  Click ESC or SHIFT-Tab at the same time.

Keep CAP locks on all the time.  This will keep you from getting the error message when you enter state codes.

ON THE MANUSCRIPT:

• With the cursor on the manuscript page, click Ctl-s to get your source citation, and detail.  (Remember we are not using the related data hints because it creates bias in the data.  Refer to you hints from the hints page).
• Clicking DETAIL gives you the preview page information. 
• From there you can click on one of the other people's names, or click on their name in the index to change the URL to specifically be for that person 
• Clicking on a different person in the index or on the DETAIL page under source will also highlight that person in yellow on the manuscript page  

Progress report

You all did a good job this past week, exceeding by a couple of soldiers the number we have to complete each week to finish the sample by the end of the grant period. Keep up the great work!

Project 1 (as of 10/28/2015)

• 1482 total soldiers complete
• 181 soldiers without children (to be removed from sample)
• 1301 soldiers with children complete
• % of soldiers with children complete of total sample (n=8,500) = 15.3

Checking reminder

Just a reminder to everyone that we are near the end of our first month on the new checking system. You must send your checks to the checkee and to Sandy and me by the last day of the month. Most of you have done all or part of your checking (yes, I'm keeping track). Thanks. Only one pair doesn't seem to have started yet.

I'm interested in your feedback. What worked? What didn't work? How onerous was it? Did you like the feedback you got from your checker? Did you learn anything new? Please email me your comments and suggestions.

Collage

Here is what we made with all the cool photos you shared with us. It will be displayed at a couple of upcoming conferences.

When the soldier has no children

I've noticed that many of you are spending way too much time working on soldiers who have no children (not to be confused with soldiers whose children you are unable to find). It should not take you four hours to determine that the soldier has no children.

Please try to keep your time on these soldiers to about an hour. Do not spend more than 90 minutes. If you hit 90 minutes, and you haven't found the soldier in one or more decades, then please mark the decades with yellow Xs and move on.

Adding records to family trees while checking

We've decided that when you're checking and you find records that the original inputter missed, that you should add those records to the family tree. If you add it to the tree, then there is no need to include the link on the check sheet. Please continue to explain how you found that record. The original inputter will not benefit if you don't explain how you found the record.

Summary:

• If you find additional records while checking, add them to the tree.
• If you add the record to the tree, then there is no need to enter the link in the checking document.
• ALWAYS explain how you found the additional records.

Reminder on quick checks

Several of you have emailed me to ask how to do a quick check. To save you the trouble of going back to your email to find the explanation, I will give it again with a little more detail.

In a quick check, search for the NFs and spot check the rest of the work. This spot checking will be primarily for the inputting. But if you see a mistake beyond inputting errors, please note it.

Right now, there is not a time limit on quick checks. After we get all the checks back, we might change that if we notice that it's taking many hours to do a quick check. That said, try not to spend hours and hours on this.

A note about input logs

You will remember that I asked you to enter the names of all the children and spouses on your input log, even if you were unable to find them. Mostly, you're doing this. Many of you are not doing it if you didn't find any of the children.  That is, if you find 3 of the 5 children, you're entering all 5 kids and the spouse on your log. But if you didn't find any of them, then you're not writing any them down on the log.

Please enter on your log all children and spouses you searched for, even if you didn't find anybody.

So if you didn't find them, your log might look like this:

GILL, JOHN 1313609034
Mary (02)
John (06)
Cordelia (07)
Thomas (10)
Jane (11)
Helen (01)-sp

Note that all the names have been listed, but there are no household numbers.

Please check your email

I know some of the youngest among you don't like to check your email. But, please, do it anyway. Please do it on a regular basis. It is the primary way we send out work communications. It is how I've instructed you to contact each other for the new checking system. Nobody should have to wait two or three weeks to get a response from you about checking, or any other work-related issue, because you don't like to check your email.

Please, check your email.

A helpful tip about times

A few of you are struggling to get your inputting times down, so we thought we'd give you a rule of thumb to gauge how much time you should spend on a soldier's family.

If a soldier has 5 children, set a goal to complete all the work for that family in 5 or fewer hours.
If a soldier has 8 children, set a goal to complete all the work for that family in 8 or fewer hours.

This comes out to about 1 hour per child. If you can do it in less time, even better. If you're working on a soldier with 5 children, and you've already spent 4 hours on the family and you haven't input anything yet, then this tip will help you realize that you should stop searching and start inputting information. We want to help you speed up by giving you a framework for measuring your time.

We know that some families are complicated and difficult. But in general, you should be able to work within these time constraints. Please keep in mind that if a soldier has 6 kids, you do not have to use all 6 hours. If you can do it faster, please do.

Some of you are fast workers. If you'd like to give helpful tips to others, please do so in the comments.

Columbus Day

Monday is Columbus Day. You're all welcome to work, but you do not have to. It is OK to submit hours for work done on a holiday. Sorry, if you decide not to work, we cannot pay you.

For those of you who work in the office, it will be open in the morning on Monday.

We hope you have a great holiday weekend!

More on photos

One of you asked if you should go back to your previous work to find photos. The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is yes, but...

If you have a good idea where you'll find the photos, and if you don't spend much time on it, you may search through your previous work. By not too much time, I mean less than an hour.

Photos

We're working on a project that will require many photos of soldiers. We are hoping to make a giant collage for an upcoming meeting.

If you come across any while doing your work, will you please email them to me? When you email them, please put the soldier's name and RecId in the file name.

If you have any really good photos that are of the soldier's family, you may send them as well.

Another note on checking

When you're checking another inputter's work, please keep the following in mind.

As you check NFs, sometimes you'll find someone that the original inputter missed. Please don't assume that the inputter doesn't know what she or he is doing. Don't assume the inputter was lazy. There are several good reasons the inputter might have missed someone that you found.

• Ancestry was acting up that day.
• You know a trick that the original inputter doesn't.
• The inputter already spent 6 hours on this family, and remembered that time counts, so was not able to do more than a cursory search.

So when you find someone, please just tell the inputter how you did your search and leave it at that. Even if it was a really easy find.

Checking example

Below is an example of a check sheet. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Include the soldier's name, the inputter's name, your name, if it is a quick or full check, and how long it took to check at the top of the page.
• Add the name of the person whose household it is next to the HH#.
• If you found something the inputter didn't, enter your search in red.
• Explain when necessary.
• Avoid using terms that might be considered judgmental, such as "clearly" and "obviously." If it were clear or obvious, the inputter would not have done it that way.
• You are welcome to praise the inputter for correct or good work.

(Sorry, the bullet lists didn't copy in perfectly. They hyperlinks are not live, but they are underlined and in blue.)

Riley Damon, 3101801040
Inputter:
Checker:
Full check, 2 h 20m

GRID:

• Forgot to mark the MilIN? column for vet’s siblings, Alpheus and Sarah. They were listed on the last page in the mil info under Remarks.

RELATIONS PAGE:

• Looks Good!

HH0 – Riley (00):

• TREE: I added 2 Iowa state censuses that showed up on Ancestry Hints for him. You should add all state censuses to the tree if you find them. They may not have shown up when you were working on him though. (same for Glen and Emma below)

• 1850: Quality Code – can be a 1 instead of a 2 because he is in the household with his parents and siblings who were listed in the mil info.

• DEATH: I found 2 death sources for him on a Washington Death Cert index and on FindAGrave. I searched on Ancestry’s Search All Records page for Name: Riley Damon; Death: 1920 (exact) Washington (exact). Both of the sources showed up. I attached them to the tree. Please add the additional info from these 2 sources to the grid: Death Index & FindAGrave.

HH 1 – Glen (15):

• 1910: Town – should be blank instead of HARTFORD; Supervisor’s Dist – should be 1 instead of blank; Street – should be MAIN AVE instead of blank.

• 1910: Boyd (23), Place of Birth and Parents’ Birthplaces – should be SD, IL, IA instead of blank; Also, Language and Occupation – should be ENG and NONE instead of blank.

• 1930: Quality Code – should be a 1 instead of a 2 for several reasons. First, her mother from the mil info was in this household.  Secondly, you have a marriage record that names Glen’s parents from the mil info and her spouse from the census. Either one of these situations on their own is enough for a QC1.

• 1940: Quality Code should be 1 instead of 2. (She was still with the husband from the good marriage record.)

• 1940: Michael (19), Industry – should be BARBER SHOP instead of BOOKSHOP.

HH2 – Emma (14):

• 1860: Page – should be 471 instead of 63. On 1850 – 1880 censuses, we get our page numbers from Ancestry’s indexed info under Tools and View Source. Even when it says Page No. on the manuscript and a number is written in, we do not use that number.

• 1860: You forgot to enter everyone else in the household. Please add the rest of the household members to the grid.

• TREE: Accidentally saved the wrong person in 1860 to her tree. (You had her as Wealthy Davis, her mother.)

• GRID: In 1850 you have her as Not Searched (yellow). Since she was born in 1857, this should have been a black dot. When that happens, you can use the People To Be Deleted google doc to have someone with administrative access to fix it for you.

HH 3 – Emma (14):

• 1870 & 1880: You have a No Find. I couldn’t find her either!

• 1910: You have a No Find. I found a pretty good match for her. I searched for Name: Emma Damon; Born: 1857 Illinois. Since she moved around a lot, I didn’t type in a residence. She was living in Whiteside County, Illinois which was close to the county she was born in according to FindAGrave. Although her age was off a bit (it was in the QC1 match in 1900 too), her name, birthplace, parents birthplaces, and number of children all matched. Her estimated marriage year was also pretty close to the mil info. I think this match could be a QC3. Please add this to the tree and grid: 1910 Census

• 1920: You have a No Find. I found another pretty good match. The problem with finding her, other than she moved around and wasn’t living with the vet or other family, was that her age kept “changing”. I knew she should have been in Billings, MT in 1920 from city directories and the vet’s pension index card. I searched for Name: Emma Damon; Lived In: Billings, MT (exact). I did not enter any birth info (because I tried that earlier and it didn’t work). Again, although her age was a bit off, her name, residence, birthplace, and mother’s birthplace were all a match. Please add this to the tree and grid: 1920 Census

Even more odds and ends

Here are some answers to a few questions we've had lately.

The Social Security Death Index gives an address (street, city, state) for last residence but no death place. DO NOT assume that the last residence is the place of death.

"If you have just the year from the Find A Grave record and you see the specific month and day on a public family tree (and the matching year), should you include it, and if you do, what should the quality code be?"  Stick to the manual which says, "A family tree is the last resort, to be used only when you have been unable to find any other death information."  In other words, don't take anything from the family tree unless that's all you have.

You DO NOT have to type the word "cemetery" for the name of the cemetery. It is unnecessary. You are never wrong to type what you see. If another word or phrase is given besides cemetery, such as "memorial park," then you must type that.