Mark soldiers complete in the database

 This is just a friendly reminder that when you complete the work for the soldier and his descendants you need to mark the soldier complete in the VCC database. 

When Coralee downloads data, she only downloads those soldiers whose status is complete. She just found 14 soldiers that should have been marked complete but were not. She had family trees for them, so she asked me to check if they were complete. Of the 14 soldiers, 10 were done by one person. The other four were done by two people. I've marked them all complete, so no one will have to go back to these families. 

Fourteen really isn't that many out of hundreds, but it takes more time for me to go back and check that they are finished and mark them complete than it does for you to mark them complete when you finish the work.

VCC screens version 1.82

The VCC screens have been updated. Before you begin work, make sure it says version: 1.82 at the top. This will ensure that you have all the correct fields and that everything saves properly. We don't know if any bugs will happen, so you might want to occasionally make sure the death screen has saved after you submit it.

Here are the changes:

Other: For Primary Cause of Death Duration there is now an "Other" box. This is a text box, so you may enter anything that doesn't fit in the Years, Months, Days boxes. Some examples of what you might enter here include: sudden, 1 hour, unknown, date of onset mm/dd/yyyy. When entering date of onset, type it in exactly the format shown: "date of onset mm/dd/yyyy" (in that order, including the slashes). If there are other dates you need to enter that aren't date of onset, label them.

Birth Sources: Birth sources have been separated from the death sources. If you find the birth date on multiple sources, please check multiple source boxes. If you select "Other," copy and paste the title of the record directly from the source (removing any apostrophes). "Life Claim/SS" is the same as "Social Security Death Index or Life Claim" in the death sources.

Birth Sources: Military Record: If the birth date comes from any military record such as draft cards or enlistments, check "Military Record." There is no need to select "Other" and copy the title of the record. Do not confuse this with the death sources that lists Mil Info, which is only for military information included in the VCC screens (and will generally only be used if you have to update the death screen for one of the soldier's children).

Birth Sources: Census: You'll notice a "Census" box under birth sources. This box is ONLY to be checked if you DO NOT HAVE A BIRTH DATE FROM ANY SOURCE. If you don't have a birth date, you may go to the census decade closest to the person's birth and estimate the year (month and year if the decade is 1900) and enter it in the birth date field. Then check the Census box and select the census decade used to estimate the birth year. Use census decades that are already input on the VCC grid or that are on the family tree or in the hints. Do not do additional searches for census decades.

The Source URLs apply to both birth and death sources. If you have a link for different birth and death records, include one of each. Otherwise, just include the two best links that you find.

1930/1940 Census Information: If you select "M" for the "Marital Status" for either the 1930 or 1940 census, additional fields will appear. These are the same fields you input for the target individual. "Grade Completed" will be added for the spouse in 1940, soon. Enter all information for the target individual and the target individual's spouse. If EITHER the target individual or the target individual's spouse are the head of household, check the "Head of Household?" box and input the information.

Please begin using these new fields today, and mark on your log which family you're working on. On the soldier's line, type "Version 1.82, 11/19/2019."

The Complete button

If you go into a soldier that is already complete, that is, you've hit the Complete button, and add additional information, please hit the Complete button again.

This doesn't have any effect on your end of the screens, but it does engage tags on the back end. Your data will be saved even if you forget to hit Complete again. We'd just like to make things easier when we pull data from the system to be delivered to the professors.

Identifying mothers in Update Relations - NEVER MIND! - WE WILL DO THIS LATER

Tonight we will be changing the Update Relations Page. If you don't see the changes when you log in to the VCC screens tomorrow, please refresh your browser. Here are Sandy's instructions for using the new feature. Beginning tomorrow, please use this feature for ALL the soldiers' children. Please make sure this has been completed when you are doing your checks.


We have added a new feature to the Update Relations Page.  We want to connect the children of the veteran with their correct mother (i.e., the right spouse of the vet).  There will be a new column now called "My Mother."  Going forward, for each child of the veteran, please enter the mother's PersonID in the appropriate row under My Mother.  In the example below, George Vandercook, PID 10, is the child of the veteran 00 and Phillipina Miller PID 09.  Gracie and Reuben are also children of the veteran and Phillippina.   Nellie Vandercook (PID 15) is the child of the veteran and his second wife Hester Vandercook (PID13).  If you do not know the mother of the child, please leave the field blank.  

At the present time, you can only enter this information after the person has been added to the grid.  You can then go in to the update relations page and make the appropriate selection for the mother.  In time, we will add the feature to the "Add a New Member Tab." 

For step children of the veteran, fill out the relations page as you have always done, making the step a child of the mother under the RelationID column and leaving the MyMother column blank.

Please contact Sandy if you have any questions.

Punctuation policy reminder

Sometimes punctuation causes problems in the inputting program, such as preventing data from saving. So, here is a reminder of our punctuation policy for inputting.

No Punctuation Marks except the comma in the name field, and periods, slashes (NOT back slashes) and semi colons in remarks or cause of death.  Never use apostrophes, pound signs and ampersands (&).

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.