Talk:FamilySearch Indexing: US—1940 Federal Census, Project Updates

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What do you do when he name of the state is written in the city field? (Please see the Wiki Project Updates page for the answer under the Place of Birth and Residence fields section)

Hawaii Census - Race
The census form shows Caucasian - Cau. The indexer put white. How should this be arbitrated, Caucasian or White?

Comments with feedback when reviewing arbitration?
I had a very difficult when indexing a page from Wisconsin. It was loaded with Norwegian last names, poor handwriting and bad focus. My solution: I found the same street in the 1930 and 1920 census where the image quality was better and found the same families and how they were spelled back then. However, the arbitrator did not always choose my entries, even though I was very confident of the ones that were hard to read because of my research. Is there any way to comment to an arbitrator when sending feedback to explain why your choices were made?

.......

I have the same concern. I'm an arbitrator but do indexing sometimes. I sometimes get low scores on my indexing because the arbitrator was mistaken. This is very frustrating and discouraging. I'm not going to quit, but I find I'm doing less and less. Again, it is discouraging to be doing your upmost to be accurate and have it undone by someone else.

"Ab" after the given name
I understand that "Ab" means the person was temporarily absent from the household on April 1, but should it be indexed in the Titles or Terms field? I'm guessing it shouldn't. I think I remember not indexing it for the 1930 census, but I just thought I would check. Thanks!

Index the "R" or type out "RURAL"
When the City of Residence has an "R", should the "R" be typed or "Rural"? I've been arbitrated both ways. What is correct?

I read in the directions that it should be typed as it is written. Is the arbitrator changing your answer to match the form?

Alleghany County, MD vs. Allegheny County, PA
I have been mis-arbitrated several times on this one.. I was pretty sure I was right, since I grew up in Western PA, but I researched it to verify...

Although they both have the same long a pronunciation, the correct spelling in Pennsylvania is Allegh e

It ends with - a ny in Maryland.

"Same place" notations in New York City
Project instructions state that when "Same place" is noted in Column 17 (City of residence in 1935), columns 18 and 19 (county and state of residence in 1935) should always be marked blank. This instruction makes sense in most places. New York City, however, encompasses 5 counties within the city limits. Therefore, someone may live in Brooklyn in New York CIty (Kings County) in 1940, but have moved there from Manhattan in New York City (New York County) in 1935. So they are in the "same place" i.e., the same city, but in a different county.

Indeed, in the pages I have been indexing from the Bronx in New York City (Bronx County) I have found numerous incidences where people have moved from one county within New York City to another. I have therefore -- on New York City census pages only -- when "same place" is noted in column 17, been filling in column 18 whenever the enumerator has done so. Column 19 (State) is always the same, so I mark it blank. With "same house" notations, I mark both 18 and 19 blank.

I expect that when arbitrators get to these pages, they are going to "correct" them according to project rules, but I don't know how to prevent this. For researchers, knowing which county someone lived in in 1935 can be valuable information. It's a shame to have it lost to those who don't look at the original images.

Thanks for trying to help, but unless the field instructions say so, please type what you see
I am relatively new to arbitration, but in just the last few days I am totally surprised by the number of indexers who seemingly try to enhance what is written on the census page. This includes:

- renumbering lines after encountering a blank line (so if line 17 is blank, then the indexer places 17 on the record for line 18, etc.) Please just omit the line number of the blank line and use the line number from the form for the next line. Also, if the form (all the "B" forms) start with line number 41, you need to use line number 41 as well. We need to stay consistent with the line numbers on the image so researchers can find the correct line on the image quickly and accurately.

- placing zeros in front of single digit line numbers ( 01, 02, 03, etc.) - please don't.

- pulling down the city, county, state from the header into blank fields even though the instructions say not to do this

- correcting the spelling of names or writing out abbreviations to names when the instructions of certain fields do not say to do this. Some do, some don't. If this is hard to remember, you might want to make yourself some notes about when you should. The field after the given name is for identifiers, like Jr, Sr, Mr, Mrs, etc. The instructions clearly state to tab over this field when it is not needed.

- not looking at the previous image when needed to fill in dittos (lines, etc.) at the beginning of your image. We need complete information, even if that is only found on the previous image.

- placing the surname in the given name field and vice versa.

- TYPING IN ALL CAPS - this is a no-no. It looks bad when ALL CAPS and Mixed case are placed in the same record - especially as the result of the arbitrator choosing some of each to get the best info.

- use Control-B or the proper button to mark fields blank. Simply typing the word, "blank" is not the same as the system marking the field &lt;Blank&gt;

We all want access to these indexes, but please take the time to actually read and become familiar with the project and field instructions. Indexing badly slows down the process of arbitration and in turn slows down the availability of the index. We are all human, and we all make mistakes (I am still learning about this project), but let's all do the best we can!

Thanks.