Death certificates

Please remember that sometimes documents have two pages. This is particularly important for death certificates. Since we are a study on health and aging, we want to collect death causes wherever possible. Always click to the next image and make sure there isn't a second page to the document. In this example, the inputter did not check for a second page, and missed multiple causes of death.

Sheet number

As your current work has been cleaned, we've noticed that many of you are still entering the "A" or "B" on the page number. Only enter these letters for the sheet number of the census manuscript. Please remove the letters from the page number for household 0.

July 2016 checking stats

In July, we checked 42 soldiers under our 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? - 2
• Missing HH member - 7
• Duplicate people - 4
• Wrong person - 2
• Other - 0

Inferred Relationships

• Incorrect relationships - 9

Census Errors

• Name - 37
• Typo/Reading/Wrong - 110!
• State Code - 0
• Missing/Wrong URL - 0
• Missing data - 39
• Additional finds - 9
• Quality Code - 25

Death Errors

• Typo/Reading/Wrong - 14
• Missing data - 21
• Missing/Wrong URL/Source - 9
• Quality Code - 8
• Additional finds - 8

Tree Errors

• Missing/Incorrect information/relationships - 2

The total number of differences for all 42 soldiers is 306. This is 70 more differences than last month. Some differences/errors affect the data more than others. If we checked other pensions, we'd probably find similar differences.

State and country codes, again

With this new VCC sample, we are cleaning and standardizing the data in batches as we go, instead of waiting until we're finished with all data collection. So, some of the ladies here in the office are cleaning the most recent data that you've all collected. Remember, the better you input, the easier you make their lives.

They've noticed that there are still a lot of mistakes being made with state and country codes. We had Chris check which inputters were making the mistakes, and it turns out the problem is quite widespread. You should be checking your manual for the correct codes. Feel free to leave the manual on your desk open to that page for easy reference. With that in mind, here is a repeat of a post from July 13, 2015.

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.

Apostrophes

Just a reminder - Please don't type apostrophes in names. It is causing problems in the screens. If the name is O'CONNOR or O'NEAL, then type OCONNOR or ONEAL.

Checks

If a checker says in the checking document to ask Heather or Sandy about something, please go to them (or email Sandy) and ask unless you have been able to resolve the question yourself.  Do not assume that one of us is reviewing every check and will automatically answer the question.  We want to see, first of all, that you are actually going through the checks carefully.  Also, we don't want to stop and open up grids and documents if we don't have to because you have been able to resolve the issue already.  With some experienced inputters, we may not review the checks at all.

It is your responsibility to make sure that all questions from your checks have been resolved.

Assignment reminder

Please let me know when you're nearing the end of your assignment. When you reach your last one or two soldiers is plenty of notice. If you wait until you're finished with your assignment to let me know you need another one, then you might have to wait for it. I might be busy with other work, or I might have gone home ill. Most of you who work outside of the office are good about this. Some of you that work in the office are good as well. Just because you work in the office, please don't assume I'm checking your log every day and will see that you need a new assignment.

Giving me advanced notice that you will need a new assignment will help ensure that you always have work to do.