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.