FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Annual Town Report Task Instructions

Part 1: Gathering Town Report Links
1. Go to the Task List and sign up for the towns you want to do. Then select the hyperlink to open the Google sheet. Each spreadsheet is organized by state and towns within the state. Select one of the town tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet will have columns for Vital Statistics, Year, and Notes. There will also be a row on the very top that says "Completed" or "Uncompleted. 2. Open up another internet window or tab. Go to Archive.org. Type in your town, state, and "Town Report" into the search bar. For example, I would type in "Albany New Hampshire Town Report" into the search bar. Sometimes the town reports don't come up. If no reports come up, try searching again later. 3. In the image to the right, is an example of a search. I searched for Albany, New Hampshire but some of the search results are for another town. Sometimes results will show up for other towns; as in the example where the first two results are for Center Harbor and not for Albany. In your spreadsheet, only record the town you searched for.
 * IF YOU FIND MISCELLANEOUS TOWN REPORTS IN YOUR SEARCH RESULTS:
 * If your search results include miscellaneous towns, such as the Albany example with Center Harbor, go to the miscellaneous spreadsheet.
 * List miscellaneous towns here. Include the URL to the front page of the town report (you don't need to find the vital statistics page).
 * When this project is completed, someone will go through this spreadsheet and add these towns.

4. Return to your internet window and select the first annual report for the town you are searching by opening up a new tab. You can do this by right-clicking on the report you wish to open, and then click "open in a new tab" (opening a new tab ensures you don't lose all your search results.) ''If you would like to sort the results chronologically, scroll over the "Date Archived" and then click the "Date Published" button. This will sort the results chronologically.'' 5. We only want to include annual reports with vital statistics. So, "flip" through the digitized copy until you make it to the table of contents. Find the Vital Statistics heading and then "turn" to that page.
 * TIPS FOR FINDING THE VITAL STATISTIC PAGE:
 * If there is no "Vital Statistics" heading, check for other headings like "Births," "Marriages," or "Deaths." Often these pages are in tables, and are on pages going horizontal.
 * If there is no table of contents? Go to the "Search inside" search bar and type "birth", "marriage", or "death" to double-check for vital statistics. However, the vital statistic information is often in a sideways table and it is not text searchable. You may have to flip through the pages to find a vital statistics page. The tables are usually near the end.
 * If you are having trouble finding a page or run into something strange, send Janae a Yammer message.

6. Once you get to the page that starts listing vital statistics, copy the page's URL and add it to the Google Doc underneath Vital Statistics. 7. List the annual report year underneath Year. (Be careful to list the year for the vital statistics and NOT the publication date. Check the table and make sure it is the same year as the annual report year. Occasionally, the annual report may list vital statistics for the year before. So double-check!
 * WHEN REPORTS COVER MULTIPLE YEARS:
 * If the town report has entries for the previous year, don't worry about listing those entries for this report under both years in the spreadsheet. We mention on the page that patrons should also check the year after the one they are searching for. However, sometimes town reports will cover a few different years. If you run across this, put the URL in the spreadsheet for each of those years, and mark them as 1956a, 1956b. Here is an [example] of how a spreadsheet looks like that had that problem.

8. Continue to repeat this process with your search results until you finish entering every year available for one town. Please keep your spreadsheet organized with the years in order. (It'll make your life easier!) For an example of a completed list, go here 9. Once your table is completed for your town, go to the cell, Not Completed, and write in Completed. Turn the cell green to show that you have finished this town.
 * What if vital statistics aren't in this report? That's ok, go back to the Google spreadsheet and put "N/A" next to the year of that annual report. Under notes, please leave an explanation of why there are no vital statistics. Usually, this is because these reports are for school/selectmen's report.

Part 2: Adding Links to the Wiki
1. Now that we have all of our data gathered, we will then add this information to the Wiki. Go to your town page (make sure you have the correct state). Scroll down until you find the heading for Vital Records. Select "edit source" next to Vital Records. 2. Copy the following and paste it directly underneath the "Vital Records" heading:

These reports often contained birth, marriage, and death information. Below is a list of years when TOWN NAME kept town reports. (NOTE: Occasionally, these town reports missed vital statistic information from the end of the year. If you don't find your ancestor's vital information, check the following year's town report to see if your ancestor's information was recorded later.)
 * {| style="width:40%; vertical-align:top;"
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * }
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * }
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * }
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * }
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * }
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * }
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * }
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

3. Replace TOWN NAME with the name of the town. (There is only one spot you need to replace this).

4. Go to your Google spreadsheet. Because we need to split our data into three columns, separate your data into three equal sections. (An easy way to do this is to just add in another row between each section). Make sure your vital statistics are listed in numerical order.

5. Copy the first section of links and years from your spreadsheet and paste it directly under the following:
 * {| style="width:40%; vertical-align:top;"
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|

6. Then next to each URL and year, add the wiki code so it looks like the following:
 * *1925

7. Go ahead and add the wiki code for the rest of the years for this section.

8. Repeat this process for the second and third sections.

9. After you are finished with copying, pasting, and marking up your data, it should look something like the following:

These reports often contained birth, marriage, and death information. Below is a list of years when Albany kept town reports. (NOTE: Occasionally, these town reports missed vital statistic information from the end of the year. If you don't find your ancestor's vital information, check the following year's town report to see if your ancestor's information was recorded later.)
 * {| style="width:40%; vertical-align:top;"
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * *1925
 * *1926
 * *1927
 * *1932
 * *1933
 * *1934
 * *1936
 * *1937
 * *1939
 * *1940
 * *1941
 * *1942
 * *1943
 * *1944
 * *1945
 * *1946
 * *1949
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * *1950
 * *1952
 * *1953
 * *1954
 * *1955
 * *1956
 * *1957
 * *1958
 * *1959
 * *1960
 * *1961
 * *1962
 * *1963
 * *1964
 * *1967
 * *1969
 * *1970
 * |style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * *1972
 * *1974
 * *1975
 * *1980
 * *1982
 * *1983
 * *1984
 * *1986
 * *1989
 * *1990
 * *1992
 * *1997
 * *1999
 * *2000
 * *2001
 * *2002
 * |}
 * |}

10. After you finish adding in all of years and links and it looks good, select Save page. 11. When you are redirected to the saved page, look at the "Vital Records" heading and make sure everything looks okay. Below is an example of what it should look like when you are finished:


 * The town of Albany kept annual town reports. These reports often contained birth, marriage, and death information. The following links list years when Albany kept town reports.
 * {| style="width:40%; vertical-align:top;"

12. After completing a town, go to that town's tab on your Google spreadsheet. Select the Not Completed cell and replace it with Completed. Fill the cell with green because you're done with that town!
 * style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * 1925
 * 1926
 * 1927
 * 1932
 * 1933
 * 1934
 * 1936
 * 1937
 * 1939
 * 1940
 * 1941
 * 1942
 * 1943
 * 1944
 * 1945
 * 1946
 * 1949
 * style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * 1950
 * 1952
 * 1953
 * 1954
 * 1955
 * 1956
 * 1957
 * 1958
 * 1959
 * 1960
 * 1961
 * 1962
 * 1963
 * 1964
 * 1967
 * 1969
 * 1970
 * style="width:16%; vertical-align:top;"|
 * 1972
 * 1974
 * 1975
 * 1980
 * 1982
 * 1983
 * 1984
 * 1986
 * 1989
 * 1990
 * 1992
 * 1997
 * 1999
 * 2000
 * 2001
 * 2002
 * }
 * }

13. Move on to the next tab in your Google spreadsheet. Finish the rest of the towns the same way. 14. When you are done with all of the towns in your Google Sheet, go back to the Task List and mark it complete by typing in the date completed.