January and February checks

I'll send out the February checking partners next week. I'm still waiting for about 6 January checks. Please make sure you copy me when you send the checks to your partner.

Missing or incomplete Mil Info

Some of you have noticed that previously input data have been given quality code 1, but there is nothing in the Mil Info to support this. If you find this, please email me the RecId, so I can investigate. It usually means there is Mil Info that exists somewhere but is missing from the screens.

In one case, the soldier was a VA pension and the Mil Info was on paper. In another case, for some reason the Mil Info just didn't upload correctly. We should be able to fix these problems.

Please don't delete the data. Let me know about the problem, and I will try to get it fixed for you.

Family trees

If you have many family trees in your account, you might have some problems with the functionality of the trees. These problems occur when you're working with trees on page five or later of your list of trees.

The problems include:

• Auto complete will not work in the search screen
• You will not be able to save something to your tree from the preview screen

To fix these problems you may:

• Delete some of your trees (after you've downloaded them and made sure I have them)
• Rename your trees by adding "_" to the front of the file name. This will bring them to the top of the list.

Weekly updates

If you work outside the office, please update me on your work progress every week by noon eastern on Wednesday. What I really need to know is which soldiers you've worked on that don't have children.

You may update me in the following ways:

• Email me and tell me how many soldiers you've completed and which ones had no evidence of children.
• Email me your current input log.
• Share your current input log with me using Google docs.
• Update some other way that you get approved by me.

This will help me give accurate information to our PI. It will also help me evaluate our progress toward our overall goal of completing the work within the grant period. Please let me know if you have questions.

Don't forget to log out

When you're finished using the VCC screens for the day (and you're not planning on leaving your work open on your computer overnight), please log out. DO NOT just close your browser window. You must log out of the screens BEFORE closing your browser window. Failure to do this might cause problems and has caused problems in the past. Please log out of the VCC screens when you're finished using them.

Checking reminders

Just a few reminders about checking

• Write whether it is a FULL or QUICK check at the top of your check sheet
• Write how much time you spent checking the soldier at the top of the check sheet
• Each soldier should have his own check sheet, even if there isn't much to type
• Please try to keep quick checks to 60 minutes or less

Reminder about the soldier's spouse

Just a reminder:

If the spouse DID NOT have any children with the soldier, then DO NOT search for her outside of household 0.

We are trying to save time, so please don't do unnecessary searching.

More instructions for Project 2 - USCT

If you're one of the lucky inputters assigned to work on USCT, here are a few more instructions.

• If all the work looks complete (for soldier and children), you may still update the family tree. We might use it later.
• You may update the tree for the soldier, but don't do any new searches for him.
• You may move the URLs to the right place (we didn't always have a field for the link) and correct errors you notice for the soldier.

New record number of households

Michelle has smashed the record for number of households for one soldier. George Medkiff had 22 household (through HH L). She entered 188 people on the Grid. Audrey still holds the record for number of people on the Grid (191).

I imagine Michelle is feeling a lot of relief now that she's finished with that family.

December 2015 checking stats

In December, we checked 44 soldiers under our new system. I've reviewed all of the checks, and I've tallied the number of differences. Some of these are errors, and some are judgment calls. Here are the categories and the total number of differences for each category.

GRID Errors

• MILIN?/MAR? - 6
• Missing HH member - 8
• Duplicate people - 4
• Wrong person - 5

Inferred Relationships

• Incorrect relationships - 1

Census Errors

• Name - 65
• Typo/Reading/Wrong - 127
• State Code - 0
• Missing/Wrong URL - 6
• Missing data - 57
• Additional finds - 47
• Quality Code - 33

Death Errors

• Typo/Reading/Wrong - 6
• Missing data - 14
• Missing/Wrong URL/Source - 20
• Quality Code - 9
• Additional finds - 19

Tree Errors

• Missing/Incorrect information/relationships - 13

The total number of errors for all 44 soldiers is 440. Some differences/errors affect the data more than others. If we checked other pensions, we'd probably find similar differences. 

More notes on Project 2 - USCT

As you begin working on USCT, please let us know if you encounter any problems or have any concerns. There are usually bumps along the way as we get used to a new project.

For many of the soldiers, a grid will already be created. That is OK. Many of these soldiers are from the new or expanded USCT collection that we did in the VCC screens.

Not Searched in 1850 and 1860

Most of the soldiers will already have 1850 and 1860 marked with black Xs. If it hasn't already been done you may mark those two decades with a black X for the soldier, his spouse, his children, or any other black individual alive. Most of the people we are searching for will not be found in those decades, so please save time by marking them not searched and moving on.

Chris will try to fix it in the screens, but if you come across "M1" or "M2" in the remarks, please enter it in the correct field. We completed most of these soldiers before the screens were able to accommodate M1 and M2.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2016 everyone!

The first 5 people to email and tell me they've read this post (and are caught up with all the posts), may add 1 hour for the next pay period.

Project 2 - USCT VCC Instructions

Happy New Year!

Here are the instructions and notes for USCT VCC that I emailed you earlier today.

The database in the VCC screens is called Project_2_VCC.

You are doing the same work for this project as you do for Project 1. The difference is that these are black soldiers and Project 1 consists of white soldiers.


Who to search for:

All children of the soldier - Census, death information
Spouse of the soldier, if she had children with the soldier - Census, death information
Step children of the soldier, same confusing rules as apply now (ask if you're not sure) - Census, death information

Soldier - ONLY search death information for the soldier if he doesn't already have it. We did not enter death information for many of these soldiers. I think Chris tried to programmatically enter it into the Death screen from the Mil Info. I haven't seen how this looks yet.

The soldier's census work should be good. If you notice any mistakes on the soldier's extant data while you're searching for the children, go ahead and correct it. DO NOT search for the NFs for the soldier. If you happen to get a hint for a missing decade, go ahead and enter it. But don't do any extra work to find missing decades.

If the soldier has no children, you may search for his death information (if it wasn't in the MilInfo), then cease work immediately. Note on your log that the soldier has no children. He will be dropped from the sample.

The database contains soldiers that were in the USCT VCC pilot project. All or most of the work should be done for these soldiers (they will probably already have a grid). Spend a few minutes (under 30 minutes, unless you find problems) spot checking the work. Then mark it complete and move on.

Summary:

Follow the same instructions for Project 2 as you do for Project 1, except don't update the soldier's census information.

Please let me know if you have questions.