Thursday, April 19, 2012

Mom was right. Indexing is actually FUN.

Last night I completed my 10th batch of names (over 300 names total) through Family Search.  I did one war volunteer card, but most of my work has been on the 1940 Census.  It has been incredible.

My father-in-law has done professional genealogy work and frequently speaks at family history events.  My mother-in-law called and told us about the Census going online weeks before it happened.  She suggested that all of the siblings' families dedicate an evening to indexing and teaching her 16 grandchildren about indexing and family history work.  She said, "It will be so much fun!"

*blink blink*

Yeah, mom...  "Fun".

I understand that indexing, records and family history are important, and that it can be quite exciting when you find something new, but indexing records FUN???  That's a bit of a stretch.  Lashi and I actually had a good chuckle over that.

So, the night before we were supposed to have this "Family Indexing Fun Night", we set up our accounts, watched the "getting started" video, and tried out a couple small items.  We learned a couple things that night:

  1. Indexing is easy - There is an image from a census sheet, you look at the info (which is highlighted in blue) and type it into the little box below.  Basically, you create a digital spreadsheet from a hand-written spreadsheet.  It's just data entry.  SIMPLE!  However....
  2. Some people's handwriting sucks - There really should have been some kind of qualifying handwriting exam for the census takers.  I did one sheet yesterday where the "F" for "female" looked like a "2" or perhaps a "Q" with lots of character.  That one I figured out, as there are only two options in the gender column: M for male and F for female.  For names, places, etc. that are undecipherable, they have a wonderful quick-key.  type <ctrl u> and it will mark that particular entry as "unreadable".  OR, if you see a name and can't tell if it's "Anne" or "Anna", then you can enter it as "Ann*".  That will throw a flag for the arbitrators, who will do their darndest and make a decision.  If someone's handwriting is just so absolutely terrible that you don't want to deal with trying to decipher it, you can return the batch for someone else to do and move on to someone more legible. 
  3. Indexing is always fascinating - It's like snooping into someone's neighborhood.  Once we learned what all the columns meant (even the ones that do not get recorded in the indexing), we discovered we could see who lives next door to whom, who is living at their house, interesting relationships and age differences, how much they pay per month for their home or farm, how much education they have...  I was amazed at how many of the adults had only as much schooling as my own children.  4th or 5th grade.  Some have NONE at all!  I found a family the other day where the husband had only an 8th grade education, but his wife had 4 years of college.  Very unusual.  We found 17 year olds married to 38 year olds with toddlers.  
  4. Fascinating quickly becomes real, genuine, actual FUN - I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed this.  I download a couple batches in the evening so that I can work on them when I get a free moment.  I index while my adoption paperwork is printing.  I index while I'm sitting in the car waiting for my kids to get out of school.  I index when I've put someone cranky in their room and need a moment of peace.  It has replaced my video games, YouTube, and old episodes of "Hoarders". 
Other pieces of advice and interesting things we've found:
  • If you see an "M" for married that is crossed out and it looks like there is a "7" written next to it, you're absolutely right.  Someone came up with that as a code for "married with absent spouse".  Yeah, would have been nice to know that upfront.
  • If a county or city name is unreadable, use our wonderful modern internet.  I had one that said "Van@^*&#@".  Could have been any number of things.  I Googled "Counties in Indiana" and found a list of all the counties.  Among them was "Vanderburgh".  I double-checked it against what was written in the Census, and it became very clear that that's what it was.  I also had what looked like "Vew Beach" in Indian River County, Florida.  I looked at a map of Indian River County and found a "Vero Beach".  Looking back at the ambiguous handwriting, that's exactly what it had been.  The internet is a wonderful thing.
  • Some things will just dumbfound you.  Yesterday's indexing included a line that said, "Here ends the negro neighborhood which is bordered on the north."  Wow.  In 2012, you just don't see things like that written our records. 
  • Adoption was not what it is now.  I know that from my own family records, but I saw a case of it this week.  There was a 33 year old widowed lady living with her widowed father, listed as "adopted daughter".  Not daughter, "adopted daughter".  Of course, she's listed with her married name, but if her case was like my great-grandfather, she never took on her adoptive parents' name or really integrated as a family member.  Again, different from today.
So, more as I continue, but I challenge and welcome and encourage everyone to give it a try.  Go to www.familysearch.org, create an account, download the free program and make even a one-document contribution to this great work.  You will be surprised by how much you enjoy it.   You may even find a piece of your own history as you do so.

2 comments:

  1. I'm finally reading it. I concure 100%. I have never put much of that into words, but It does become compulsive. I did 15,000 names on month and something over 25,000 names total. They got started before I was really ready and It got finished quick I hardly got started. The points you made are spot on. Bravo!!
    Larry (The above mentioned Father-In-Law)

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  2. Dad, you're incredible. I finally passed 1000 a couple weeks ago.

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