Talk:FamilySearch Indexing: US, Texas—Deaths, 1890–1976, Project Updates

Help us improve the indexing and arbitration of this project. Click the Edit This Page button to make suggestions. Messages will be removed after careful review by support and any updates will be posted to the Project Updates page. Many commonly asked questions, such as indexing crossed out information, have already been answered in the Basic indexing instructions.

'''Q: As these records are from Texas, there are many hispanic names. How should we deal with the hispanic custom of giving a child two surnames (one from the mother and one from the father)? Is the mother's maiden name included as a middle name for the child and the father's as the surname, or should both be surnames?'''

P.S. I have usually only seen the names written as :

FIRST//MOTHER'S MAIDEN (in middle name position)//FATHER'S SURNAME

but I have seen

FIRST//MIDDLE//MOTHER'S MAIDEN//FATHER'S SURNAME

Should these instances be keyed differently?


 * ______________________________________________________ On the subject of Maiden names,  Called support on the subject because arbitrators are not following project instructions. This is the response,  "It is the custom in some families to  not give female children middle names in the hope that they will use their maiden name after they marry.  It should be indexed with her given name not in the surname field??????  Totally conficts with Project Instructions.  My question, which is correct and if the instructions have changed. can you do an update?  Please use slide number 7 as your guideline for maiden names.  If there are updates they will be on the updates page. Project specific guidelines are often contained within the presentations provided.

As an arbitrator, I am seeing the birth "Year" entered on Texas Death records when it is blank on the form. I was always told to not assume or enter information into a place name when the place was not on the form. I was taught not to "calculate" an age or year and enter it from other information. Yet the field helps (In the Birth Place Year) say that if you can determine the year by looking around the form, to do so. Does this mean that we can now "calculate" the birth year from the Age and Death year (if given) on the form? I thought this instruction applied to other types of records and not specifically for a birth year. I can find nothing in the basic indexing guidelines for Dates that tell us not to "assume". I will keep entering "blank" unless told otherwise. But indexers are calculating based on the field helps for that field. We do not calculate dates.

1/25/12 -- Could you please update the field helps for the birth year? Currently it states: Birth Year

'''Type a four-digit number for the year. If no year or only a two-digit number was recorded, you may be able to determine the year from other data on the image or from the previous or next image. If you still cannot determine the full four-digit year, type what was written on the record.'''

If the year was not recorded or was written as a variation of the word "unknown," press Tab to mark this field as blank.

Until the field helps is corrected, it is going to continue to cause confusion for both indexers and arbitrators.

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On the birth place, the field helps state "If the city or county was misspelled, spell it correctly." When I correct the spelling, the arbs come back and change it. It seems to be more of "type what you see". The card will say "Woodsworth, LA" and when I look it up it says "Woodworth, LA". So I change mine and delete the "s". The arb comes back and puts the "s" in. What is the correct way of handling this? If the arbitrator looks up the place name it is likely they will agree, if they do not then it is unlikely.

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QUES: The certifcate info shows City, County and State. Do we index the city and county, or just city? If we index both, do we separate with punctuation? Please call support with a share batch, Thank you.

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'''QUESTION: Some certificates are showing City, State AND Country. (These are Texas/Mexico border counties) Some are showing city and state, but the city and states are in Mexico. I have been indexing the state, only to have it changed to Mexico in arbitration. Exactly what should we index in the Birth State or Country field? Thanks.'''