New rule for adopted and step grandchildren

After working through a list of grandchildren that were missing their death screens only to find that half of them were adopted or step grandchildren, I thought we needed a new rule.

For all grandchildren who are adopted or step children, please add a death screen that includes the name and sex of the grandchild. In parentheses after the name, enter "ADOPTED" or "STEP" as appropriate. Do this also for grandchildren whose parent is an adopted or step child of the veteran.

Input names like this (following the standard name rule):

• HALE, MARGARET (ADOPTED)
• THORNTON, JOHN (STEP)

Who this rule applies to:

• adopted children of the soldier's biological children
• step children of the soldier's biological children
• biological children of the soldier's adopted children
• biological children of the soldier's step children

This rule will help with data integrity checks at the end of collection. It will also allow us to determine which grandchildren are adopted or step.

This rule is effective immediately. If you have any adopted or step grandchildren on your current assignment, please add the death screens for them. There is no need to go back to previous assignments.

New weekly inputting goals

Last week we completed 35 RecIds (veterans). This was about 1.2% of the sample and brought our completion to 23% of the sample.

To complete 24% of the sample, we only need to complete 28 RecIds to reach a total of 679.

We can do better than that (as demonstrated last week). If we complete 35 RecIds, that will bring out total to 686 or 24.27% complete.

So the goal for this week is again to complete 35 RecIds.

I was also asked to make a goal for how many grandchildren to complete. Currently we have completed 8,172 or 24.35% of the grands in the database. Last week we completed 424 grandchildren.

Here are a couple of options for goals:

• 25% = 8,391 (must complete 219 grands)

• 25.5% = 8,559 (must complete 387 grands)

• 26% = 8727 (must complete 555 grands)

Please keep in mind that these percentages for grandchildren might change. This is because we both add and subtract grandchildren from the database. We also know that the number of grandchildren we must finish to complete 1% of the sample is not related to the number of RecIds we must finish, because the number of grandchildren each soldier has varies.

All that being said, I think a good stretch goal for grandchildren would be to try and complete 555 to reach 26%.

What do you all think?

Grandchildren progress report - April 8

Here is our progress on the Grandchildren sample as of yesterday, April 8, 2020.

Grandchildren Sample	POW	Non-POW	Total
Total RecIds Completed	283	368	651
RecIds Completed in the Last Week	22	13	35
% Sample Completed	--	--	23.0
Total Grandchildren (including new)	--	--	33566
New Grandchildren Added	373	595	968
Total Grandchildren Completed	3556	4616	8172
% Grandchildren Completed	--	--	24.35
Birth Dates Added	3537	4543	8080
Death Dates Added	3115	4100	7215
Death Causes Added	601	863	1464
Found 1930	1522	1761	3283
Found 1940	1934	2468	4402
Living Grandchildren	49	61	110
New Living Male-line Great Grandsons Found	72	280	352
New Living Male Greats Found in Last Week	5	6	11
Child Death Causes Added	--	--	102

Total sample = 2826

Congratulations! We reached our weekly goal of completing 23% of the sample! Keep up the great work!

Another article by a colleague related to current events

Here is an article from one of our EI colleagues who is a Professor of Economics at Seoul National University, Korea.

It is about South Korea's response to the global pandemic.

Family photos and video

Here is Noelle's grandnephew Kaden.

Here is Irene's granddaughter Halston.

And here is a video of Noelle's grandnephew Whitson. Enjoy!

A few more springtime photos

I don't know about the rest of you, but I think some photos of blooming trees and flowers might cheer me up.

1940 Income field on the death screen

In 1940, census enumerators were instructed to enter an individual's income on the census. If that income was over $5,000, the enumerator was to enter: $5,000+. Previously, we could not enter the "+" in the field. That has been corrected on the death screen (not on the regular 1940 inputting screen).

When inputting income on the death screen for the 1940 census, if the enumerator wrote 5,000+, please type, "5000+" in the field. There is no need to make additional notes in the remarks field.