FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Annual Town Report Task Instructions

Purpose
Add Annual Town Reports for towns in New England. These reports usually contain birth, marriage, and death vital statistics that are helpful for genealogy research.

Task List

 * Task List
 * Miscellaneous Link Spreadsheet

Examples
Albany, Carroll County, New Hampshire: here underneath Vital Records Alexandria, Grafton County, New Hampshire: here underneath Vital Records

Part 1: Gathering Town Report Links
1. Go to Task List and sign up for one of the Google sheets. Then select the hyperlink to open the Google sheet. Each spreadsheet is organized by state and by towns within the state. Select one of the tabs. Your spreadsheet will have columns for Vital Statistics, Year, and Notes. There will also be a top row that says "Completed". 2. Open up another internet window or tab. Go to Archive.org. Type in your town, state, and "Town Report" into the searchbar. For example, I would type in "Albany New Hampshire Town Report" into the searchbar. For some reason, sometimes the town reports don't come up. If no reports come up, try searching again later or be sure to click the bottom black arrow for more information. 3. If you go here, you'll see an example of what your search will look like. In this example, I searched for Albany, New Hampshire but some of my search results are for another town. For example, the first two results are for Center Harbor. In your spreadsheet, only record the town you searched for. ''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.'' IF YOU FIND MISCELLANEOUS TOWN REPORTS IN YOUR SEARCH RESULTS: 4. Return to your internet window and select the first annual report for the town you are searching by opening up a new tab. (Opening a new tab ensures you don't lose all your search results.)
 * If your search results include miscellaneous towns, go to this spreadsheet.
 * List miscellaneous towns here. Include the URL to the front page of the town report (don't feel the need to find the vital statistics page).
 * When this project is completed, someone will go through this spreadsheet and add these towns.

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 VITAL STATISTIC PAGE: 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. Don't list 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: 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.
 * Is there no "Vital Statistics" heading? Check for other headings like "Births," "Marriages," or "Deaths."
 * Is there no table of contents? Go to the "Search inside" searchbar and type "birth", "marriage", or "death" to double-check for vital statistics.
 * The vital statistics may also be listed in a sideways table. (See here for an example.) Therefore, sometimes vital statistic information isn't text searchable. You may have to flip through the pages to find a vital statistics page. I've found that tables usually are on the last page.
 * If you are having trouble finding a page or run into something strange, send Carly a Yammer message.
 * 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 why there are no vital statistics. Usually, this is because these reports are for school/selectmen's report.
 * We want to share these annual town reports in a clear and easy way on the Wiki. For example, when a 1947 report has a few leftover statistics for 1946 December then it is not necessary to list the year 1946 twice. If you look at the template below, you'll see that we've advised users to check adjacent years.
 * When you run across something weird, then it might be appropriate to list years like 1956a, 1956b, and 1956c. (For example, Auburn, New Hampshire lists 1956 statistics for the 1956, 1957 AND 1958 annual reports. Most people wouldn't think to check 1958 because it isn't the year that directly follows 1956. Therefore, it would be okay to list the same year multiple times.)

Part 2: Adding Links to the Wiki
1. Now that we have all of our data gathered, we will then add this information into 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:


 * The town of TOWN NAME kept annual town reports. 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.

4. Go to your Google spreadsheet. Because we need to split our data into three columns, separate your data into three equal sections. (It doesn't really matter how you do this, you can add in another row of cells or highlight a new section with a new color.) 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 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:


 * The town of Albany kept annual town reports. 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 a new 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 now!
 * 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 onto 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 Task List and mark it complete by typing in the date completed.