November checking statistics

In November, we checked 48 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? - 3
• Missing HH member - 4
• Duplicate people - 1
• Wrong person - 0
• Other - 8

Inferred Relationships

• Incorrect relationships - 16

Census Errors

• Name - 29
• Typo/Reading/Wrong - 98
• State Code - 0
• Missing/Wrong URL - 8
• Missing data - 21
• Additional finds - 8
• Quality Code - 18

Death Errors

• Typo/Reading/Wrong - 9
• Missing data - 37
• Missing/Wrong URL/Source - 9
• Quality Code - 1
• Additional finds - 15

Tree Errors

• Missing/Incorrect information/relationships - 11

The total number of differences for all 48 soldiers is 296. This is 22 fewer differences than October, when we checked 44 soldiers. Some differences/errors affect the data more than others. If we checked other pensions, we'd probably find similar differences. So, in November you checked more soldiers than in the previous month and reduced your errors. Good work!

Progress report as of November 30

Here is our progress report as of November 30.

	Project 1	Project 2 - USCT
	n = 8,500	n = 4,500
Total soldiers complete	5030	1642
Soldiers completed during last  week	48	13
Soldiers w/o children (to be removed from sample)	492	286
% of completed soldiers w/o children	9.8	17.4
Soldiers with children complete	4538	1356
% with children complete	53.4	30.1

As you can see from the table about we have completed 53.4% of the soldiers in Project 1. We only count the soldiers with children because the others will be removed from the sample. We are well on our way to reaching our goal of completing 55% of Project 1 by January 1, 2017. To reach our goal, we will need to complete 137 soldiers during the month of December. That will be easy! Keep up the good work!

Ever had child

Those of you who are working on Project 1 might remember that there is a column on your input log called "Ever had child." I thought I'd give you an explanation of what the information in this column means. The 1s and 0s in this column don't guarantee that the soldier did or did not have children. They merely indicate that he might or might not have children. In short, the numbers mean the following:

• 1 = something is entered in the pension children fields
• 0 = nothing is entered in the pension children fields

If a 0 is entered in this column, all it means is that there was no indication in the pension that the soldier had children. There weren't any letters, affidavits, or family circulars that noted the presence or absence of children in the soldier's family. We just don't know if he had kids. Often, if the soldier had children we would find mention of them in the pension, but this is not always true.

If a 1 is entered in this column, it means that there is some indication in the pension that the soldier did or did not have children. There will be a 1 in this column if the pension contained any of the following kinds of information in Children: Name field in the pension data:

• a child's name
• (child) - indicating that there is evidence of a child, but no further information
• (no child) - indicating that somewhere in the pension it was stated that there are no children

Often, you'll see a 1 and be surprised that the soldier has no kids. That's fine. Other times you'll see a 0 and think the soldier is childless only to find out that he has 14 kids. That is a bummer.

I hope this information helps as you use the information in the Ever had child column.

Completed family trees

This is just your periodic reminder that you need to download your completed family trees (GEDCOM files). We are saving these files for future use.

When you've downloaded them, you need to save them to the shared drive (those of you in the office) or email them to me. Please do not make me wait a month after you've completed your assignment to get your trees. They are due when you complete your assignment. The exception to this is for work that is out for checks. You may wait until a soldier is checked before providing me his completed tree. Please don't make me email you and ask for your trees. It creates more work for me and makes record keeping more difficult.

As usual, some of you are really great at downloading and saving your trees. I appreciate that. If you need help downloading your trees, please ask for help.

Arteriosclerosis v. Atherosclerosis

It was just brought to my attention that there might be some confusion between arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis. These words are often misspelled in the records. We've told you to spell arteriosclerosis correctly, regardless of how it's spelled on the document. We don't want you to see atherosclerosis and assume it is a misspelling of arteriosclerosis. It is not. Atherosclerosis is a form of arteriosclerosis, but you should not use the words interchangeably. If you're not sure which word it is, ask.

In summary, these are two different words and should not be confused:

• arteriosclerosis
• atherosclerosis

Please use Family Search

Sometimes documents such as birth, death, and marriage records are not available on Ancestry, but they are available on Family Search. Please use Family Search when records you need are not available on Ancestry.

Additionally, sometimes you find a death date on Ancestry, but no death cause. Please look on Family Search to see if you can find a record with cause of death. This information is important to our study.

Some of you have not signed up for Family Search accounts. An account is required to look at some of the documents. The account is free, so please sign up for one the next time you need to use Family Search.

Cool photo

Sandy found this photo with James Maricle of A 32 WI INF. We don't know if any of these soldiers are Maricle, but it's still a cool photo.