Reviewing - date from no where?

John W. O'Brien

United States—Enlisted and Officer Muster Rolls and Rosters, 1916–1939 [Part J][M3WD-GP3]

I've run into this before. A date or "blank" is a required entry. For this batch a date of Sep 30, 1918 was entered but that date is not on the document therefore "blank" should have been entered. Note that the series of names start with number 6. Perhaps the indexer did the names 1 through 5 and the date was on that page?

Should I change the date to "blank" or accept the date as is.

Thanks, John

John Empoliti

Your batch image/page is a continuation of a document that began on a prior image, which you can see on your Reference images (-1 or -2 etc. - have a look). The date indexed (Sep 30, 1918) for that "Losses list" or Monthly Roll or Roster is probably at the top of a prior page. BUT, for this project, the indexer is only allowed to look back for the Military Year, and not the month or day. So, look back and see if you find that date. The full date is "accurate" but not "correct" to Index for this project. Strictly, if you see Sep 30, 1918, at the start of that document your image is a continuation of, you should Index 1918 in the Military Year Field, and Ctrl+B the Month and Day Fields.

From the Field Help for Military Year. You won't find these instructions for the Military Month and Day Fields.:

The date at the top of a roster or roll may be used for all entries as the military date if the entries don't contain their own individual enlistment dates. If a year is not given, it may have been recorded on a previous image.

John Empoliti

We are allowed to “look back” at previous images for column headers and the Military Year, but, oddly, not for Military Month and Day.

On early Parts of this Project we were allowed/instructed to look at adjacent images for all of that information. A few Parts ago, as on the current and recent Parts, Instructions (Field Helps) withheld (were silent on) that permission only for the Month and Day fields and explicitly gave it for the Year. When prodded on this issue, the reply was to follow the instructions (Field Helps).

SusanMullenPelton

"The date at the top of a roster or roll may be used for all entries. The top of the roll would be the top of the beginning page. What to Remember About this Project bullet point 10."

I wondered about this so researched it. The Project Instructions make it more clear.

LarryClark43

• If a document does not include column headings, the headings can usually be found on an adjacent image.
• If a document has 2 columns, index the names in both columns from the top to the bottom beginning with the left column.
• The dates were typically written in a month, day, year order.
• If more than 1 enlistment date was given, use the earliest date.
• The date at the top of a roster or roll may be used for all entries as the enlistment date if the entries don't contain their own individual enlistmen

IF you combine the first bullet above and the last you end up with a complete date.