Order of Indexing WARNING on US, Oklahoma-Obituaries 1963-1986

John Empoliti

Alert/Warning: To Indexers of the various Obituary projects for Oklahoma, Minnesota, and Missouri. I have a batch from the Oklahoma project named in the title with one image and seven clipped obituaries . The Indexer did all of the "Deceased" Entries in order left to right from the 7 clippings. THEN the Indexer did all of the "Other" entries, in order, at the very end, from all seven obituaries. So the linkage between "Deceased" and "Other" on an obituary-by-obituary basis is lost. I presume that all of the "Other" entries will appear to be associated with the very last "Deceased" entry to the system.

So the order of indexing can still matter a lot. In the general guidance right below, it appears to be a strong suggestion, and we know that it is hard on Reviewers when an Indexer does not follow the natural order in the document. But in these obituary projects, it appears to be critical to follow the instructions below and index the Deceased and immediately after that all of the Others in that obituary. And then move on to the next obituary. It is not optional.

Here is the current general guidance on indexing order:

How should I index records with multiple pages?

Article Id: 1683

April 20, 2020

When multiple pages or records appear in one image, index the records in the order they were written, if that can be determined. Otherwise, index from top to bottom and left to right, as if reading a book. 

Note: In web indexing, the order of indexing is not as important as it once was. However, this method is still preferred.

Here is the specific guidance on the order of indexing from the Oklahoma Obituaries project:

Index the name of the deceased first, by selecting the "Deceased" entry type. Then index all of the other names that were mentioned in the obituary or death notice, each as a separate entry, in the order that they appear in the document by selecting "Other" as the entry type.

Melissa S Himes

I love the instructions for this project and that they have obituary date fields instead of burial dates. If there is no death date on the obit, the fields are blank.

Melissa S Himes

Nope - except that it seems that some very good indexers aren't reviewing the instructions. That might be something they want to put in the "What to Look For While Reviewing" section, in addition to making sure the relationships are correct.

John Empoliti

I noticed that too, Melissa. I was impressed with that - no fudging the dates.