Union Army Veterans paper

Many of you will remember that Professor Wilson came to the office to talk about what the research and data collection all of you do gets used for. Here is a link to the paper he shared with us as well as presented at the recent PAA meeting.

A note to checkers

Here are some new rules for checking (in addition to the old rules).

• Always fill out a check sheet even if there are few or no mistakes.
• Enter each household, even if no mistakes were found. This lets us know how many households were checked.

So a practically perfect check might look like this.

Name, RecId, Checked by etc

HH0  Charles (03), Age: 54, not 45

HH1 OK

HH2 OK

HH3 OK

You may also indicate that the person did a great job.

Accuracy counts

We mentioned in a previous post that speed counts. Speed is very important. If we're not fast enough, then we won't finish the work in time. But accuracy counts, too. Accuracy in finding the correct person, and accuracy in entering all the data into the screens. If the data are not accurate, then they can't be trusted.

Everyone is working hard, but we are noticing lots of little things in the inputting. Before you hit submit, take a few seconds to look at what you've input, and make sure it looks correct.

Congratulations to . . .

Congratulations to the five inputters who received an extra 30 minutes on their time sheets just for telling me they read this blog. Only six people told me they actually read it. Hmm, what should I take from that?

All inputters are welcome to email me and let me know the kinds of things you'd like to see on this blog. And stay tuned for more opportunities to get credit for extra time.

Just a few things that need clarifying

Here are a few things we've noticed in checks and in conversation. We want to make sure everyone is on the same page.

• Checkers, you don't have to remind our UT inputters to hit complete. They do it after the soldier is checked. UT inputters, you do not have to wait until the soldier is checked to mark complete.
• In the 1850 and 1860 census manuscripts, race is blank for white people, so we should leave it blank in the inputting screens. Our rule is, "If it's there put it in, if it's not leave it out." Back when some of this information was originally input, we did not have that rule. So you will need to clear the field.
• It is all right to abbreviate National Home for Disabled Veteran Soldiers as NHDVS when it is spelled out on the manuscript under institution. You will find this in our standard list of abbreviations in Appendix A of the manual.
• It is also all right to abbreviate farmer as F and laborer as LAB under occupation. These are standard abbreviations found in the manual.
• Sometimes the Find a Grave records won't have a death date. These records cannot be input in our screens, but they should be saved to the Family Tree.
• When Ward says something like WARD 7 PRECINCT 4, enter 7 for Ward and under Total Remarks enter everything -- WARD: WARD 7 PRECINCT 4.
• Be sure to input all available information on the Death screen. Sometimes you will find it on multiple records. Cemetery name and location have been forgotten frequently.

Let me know if you have questions.

Input logs and updates

There seems to be a little confusion about filling out input logs. I think you're all good at adding lines under the name of the soldier and entering the additional households. If there are no children, please indicate that. Most of you write "no evidence of children" on the line below the soldier's name. If there are children, but you found no additional households, please indicate this in some way. Some of you do this and others don't. We probably never asked you to do it, but it does make processing the assignments easier.

Please keep your logs up to date, I use them for the weekly update. For those of you who work offsite, make sure I know which of the soldiers from your assignment have no children. I would like to know this by lunchtime every Wednesday so it can be included in the weekly update.

The first five inputters who email me and tell me they've read this post may add 30 minutes to their time sheets. I'll email the lucky inputters.

State and country codes

We've noticed incorrect state and country codes being used recently. It's not uncommon for this to happen. Please don't assume you know the two-digit code, especially all of you who are new. Here are some commonly confused state and country codes.

• Nebraska is NE not NB, which is New Brunswick.
• Arkansas is AR not AK, which is Alaska. We rarely input AK.
• England is EN not EG, which is Egypt.
• Indian Territory is RT not IT, which is Italy.
• Prussia is PU not PR, which is Puerto Rico.

Bonus fun fact: German states have their own codes. So if the person was born in Bavaria, you may type BV, Brandenburg is BR, etc.

If you're not sure what the correct code is, they can all be found in Appendix A of your manual.