United States—Enlisted and Officer Muster Rolls and Rosters, 1916–1939 [Part L] [M3XB-4TJ]
Hello! It has been a few years since I indexed, so I want to make sure I am doing it accurately.
I received a partially indexed batch. The previous indexer did not include the middle initial in the "Given Names" field. Should it be included or not? I read the instructions and searched here in the Ask a Question, but did not see anything to confirm.
Thanks!
Best Answer
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Under the "General Indexing Guidelines" it says to: "Type the most complete version of the name in the indexing field." This would include the middle initial. Just make sure it is not part of the military ID/serial number which sometimes appears in the middle of, or right after the name (these are usually all numbers, but might start with a letter followed by a dash, e.g., R-#####).
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Answers
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@MinnWisRoots thank you for your help! I appreciate it! I will enter the most complete version of the name, leaving out all non-name information.
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Welcome back to indexing and thanks for volunteering your time! This particular batch did not include any ID numbers, but if you continue with this project, you'll find they do show up once in a while. Don't hesitate to Return any batches you have trouble reading, and don't hesitate to bring any more questions to this forum. Someone is usually around to answer (a little scarce now due to the Thanksgiving holiday).
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Hi Jennifer.
Yes, include all those middle initials with the first name to provide the full "given names. " However, do not include any suffixes like Jr.
July 31, 1918, is the correct Military Date. No soldier on that page has an actual enlistment date given, so, per the Field Help (purple question mark) for the Military Date fields, the Monthly Roster date may be used as the Military Date for all of them.
The Birthplace and Birthdate fields should be Ctrl+B (<Blank>) for all entries, as no soldier has birth information. The previous Indexer has put an incorrect value of "Usa" in most of the Birthplace fields.
I see about 89 names, and the previous Indexer has indexed only 41. You can add 48 more blank entries in one fell swoop by using the plus sign icon in the middle of the toolbar, putting the number 48 where the number 1 is, and choosing to add them "after the last entry."
Suppose you add the extra needed entries, making a total of 89. In that case, you can quickly populate those field values that are the same for all soldiers: - Military Month = Jul, Military Day = 31, Military Year = 1918, Birthplace = <Blank>, Birthdate = <Blank> - to all 81 of those entries (the first entry is already correct). This action will also correct the Birthplace field errors. Put your cursor successively in each of those five fields in the correctly indexed FIRST entry and click the 6th horizontal icon from the right. This "copy forward to all like fields" tool will send that first entry's value for those fields to the same field in all the rest of the entries #2 through #89.
If I have miscounted and you need more than the 89 entries, that plus sign icon will let you add them. If 89 entries are too many, then the garbage can icon to the right of the plus sign will let you delete them.
Welcome back to indexing; enjoy and good luck!
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@Jennifer Gedge . Here is the guidance not to include Jr (a suffix) with the name. I took this from the Field Help (purple question mark) for Given Names for this Project:
Do not include titles, terms, prefixes, or suffixes with the name.
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