Checking

Just a reminder that even though it's the holiday season, your monthly checks are still due by December 31. Most of you have already done them. Good job! A few of you are cutting it really close to the wire.

As we begin collecting USCT, you'll want to inform your checking partner which database your soldiers are in. It will be easy to tell from the RecIds if the soldiers are USCT (all USCT RecIds begin with 90), but out of courtesy, you should inform your partner of the correct database.

Let me know if you have any comments, concerns, or questions about the checking system.

Speed counts

This is just a reminder that speed counts. We would like the average time for each soldier to be about 4.5 hours. That includes all searching and inputting, and is a tall order. We recognize that if the soldier has 10 kids, you're probably not going to get it done in that amount of time. That's why we look at averages over time.

Here is a trick you can use to estimate the maximum amount of time you should spend working on a soldier. When you begin work on a soldier, check how many children he has, either from the Mil info or from previous census work. Calculate one hour per child to get the maximum number of hours you should spend on that family. You do not have to spend all of that time. Getting the work done, while still doing good work, in less time is better.

If you're still on 100% checks, then you don't have to worry about tracking your time. Everyone else should do so and make an effort to speed up. If you'd like me to calculate your average time, I can do so. When I calculate it, I will use the number of hours you submit on your time sheet, and the number of soldiers you've completed during that time period (it's a rough number).You can also do it yourself using the information from your logs. That will give you a slightly different answer, but will help you know if you need to improve. I know your times will be slower if all the soldiers you've worked have many children.

Another thing to consider is whether what you're doing is adding value.  All the extra time you spend on one soldier is time that won't be spent on another. We still have about 11,000 soldiers to complete during the grant period. Is it worth the extra time to find documents to bring your quality code from 2 to 1? No. Is it worth spending an extra 10 minutes on a decade when you've exhausted all reasonable searches in five minutes? Probably not.

Please be aware of what you're doing and how long it is taking you to do it. If any of you have any time-saving tips, please share them in the comments.

We do appreciate all your hard work.

Surgeons Certificate video, part 2

As you know, we've been making videos demonstrating how we collect our data. Here is the link to part 2 of our surgeons certificate video. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV01NWjfO08

USCT

I'm about to begin assigning soldiers from the new USCT sample. We don't know yet how easy or difficult it will be. It will be the same work you're doing now, just with black soldiers instead of white.

Three of you (Audrey, Stacy, and Kristy) have expressed interest in working on the new sample. One person has said she would rather not, and one has said she has no preference.

Will you please let me know by comment or email if you're interested in working on the new sample? I'll need about six people (give or take), so if only three of you are interested, then at least three of you who are not interested will still have to work on it. Sorry. I will try to take your preferences into consideration.

Quick checks

DO NOT spend more than 60 minutes on a quick check. Check the most important items first. If you're not done at 60 minutes, please STOP checking.

Naming your checking documents

There was some confusion about a previous post. I've noticed several of you have started doing this incorrectly since you read the blog post.

I would like you all to change the way you name your checking documents. From now on, name them in the following manner.

SOLDIER'S LAST NAME,  Soldier's First name by Checker name

For example:

SMITH, John by Heather

This DOES NOT refer to what you type at the top of your Word document. You should still be typing the RecId, the name of the inputter, and how long it took to check. That is, you should still be including at the top of your document, everything you included before you read the original post.

This DOES refer to what you do when you hit the SAVE button, and you're asked to name your document. The above is the file name.

Please ask if you have questions.

Births and deaths within the census year

This is a repeat of a post from October. Many of you are still having difficulty remembering this information, so I thought a little reminder would help.


There is a little confusion about what to do when individuals are born in the census decade, but after the census was taken. There is also confusion about what to do when individuals die in the census decade but before the census was taken.

If the individual was born after the census was taken in a given decade, the system will not add a black dot for that decade. Please make that decade a black X (for not searched). For example, if a person was born in 1880 after the census was enumerated, the system will have black dots for the decades 1850, 1860, and 1870. Mark 1880 with a black X.

If the individual died before the census was taken in a given decade, the system will not add a purple gravestone for that decade. Please make that decade a black X (for not searched). For example, if a person died in 1920 before the census was enumerated, the system will have purple gravestones for the decades 1930 and 1940. Mark 1920 with a black X.

This does not hurt the data. From a data perspective, black dots, purple headstones, and black Xs all mean the same thing. They are just administrative tools to make our jobs easier.

November 2015 checking stats

In November, we checked 44 soldiers under our new system. I've reviewed all of the checks, and I've tallied the number of errors. I recognize that some of the "errors" were judgment calls and should probably be called differences. Sometimes, words are just really difficult to read. Sometimes a family is just difficult or Ancestry is acting up. Every person had errors, and there is always room for improvement. Here are the categories and the total number of errors for each category.

GRID Errors

• MILIN?/MAR? - 7
• Missing HH member - 1
• Duplicate people - 0
• Wrong person - 4

Inferred Relationships

• Incorrect relationships - 3

Census Errors

• Name - 60
• Typo/Reading/Wrong - 170
• State Code - 0
• Missing/Wrong URL - 9
• Missing data - 80
• Additional finds - 20
• Quality Code - 22

Death Errors

• Typo/Reading/Wrong - 10
• Missing data - 22
• Missing/Wrong URL/Source - 16
• Quality Code - 3
• Additional finds - 4

Tree Errors

• Missing/Incorrect information/relationships - 7

The total number of errors for all 44 soldiers is 438 (exactly 100 more errors than in October). Some errors affect the data more than others. If we checked other pensions, we'd probably find similar errors. 

Thank you all for taking this so seriously. Let's set a goal to reduce our errors in December.

Leading zeroes

There has been some confusion about leading zeroes in the page and sheet numbers in HH0.

You do not need to remove these. It doesn't matter if you delete them, but you are not required to do so. It does not affect the data.

Please do not write on your check sheets that the inputter forgot to remove them. It is not a mistake.

Something to look forward to

In January, we will begin a new project to run concurrently with Project 1 for the rest of the grant period. The new project will be USCT_VCC. We will search for the children of approximately 4,500 black soldiers.

To meet our goals, I will probably assign 6-8 people (depending on various factors) to do the USCT work. Right now, my plan is to just begin assigning USCT soldiers in January as people finish their current assignments.

Do any of you have a particular interest in working on the USCT project?

Just a reminder about family trees

When you've finished your assignment and any checking that needs to be done on it is completed, please download your family trees.

If you're in the office, please either email them to me or save them to the file server. If you're not in the office, please email them to me.

Some of you are doing a great job with this. Some of you have difficulty remembering to do this.