UK, England, Lancashire—Nonconformist Church Records, 1647–1996 [Part B] [MSLZ-K1S]
Hi! I'm working on a UK batch https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/b6fa8c83-6622-4bef-8f75-52140f2821b1 Looking at a document from 1734/5 in other words before the month change in 1752. So when they write "second month" they mean April not February. The field help for month says "When the month was written as a number, choose the corresponding month from the drop-down list. For example, the month 12 would be indexed as Dec." That's obviously correct for part of this project since it covers 1647-1996. But it's not correct for pre-1752 records. Should I blindly follow incorrect field helps or use my intelligence and write the month that the original recorder intended, ie April for month 2, not Feb, etc.?
And please don't tell me the researcher should not rely on the index but check with the original! As in many cases, this may not be possible since PIs say "The completed index and images may have restrictions."
Answers
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Thank you for sharing your batch.
The first entry in your batch says the person was born the 8 day of ye 2nd mo th 1732.
Based on the field helps, and the project instructions, the indexer was correct to enter Feb. They followed the instructions. (12 would be indexed as Dec.)
If the instructions are changed and an instruction is added to convert the dates to the pre 1752 calendar, then it would be correct for the reviewer to change the month to April. But, so far, the instructions have not been changed and nothing has been added to the What To Look For When Reviewing section.
Perhaps a moderator could pass this concern along to the project managers.
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I understand, Melissa, and that's what I accepted as I reviewed. I have passed it on to FS, and we'll see if they change the field help (haha!). If not, 2 is Feb ;-)
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Congrats! There is a new project instruction and the field helps have been changed, deleting the 12 = Dec instruction:
- England adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752. Prior to 1752 in England, the year on the Julian calendar began in March and continued to the next February. This would mean that the 3rd month in 1730 would be May. In the Gregorian calendar adopted in 1752, the 3rd month would be March. When indexing records for this project, please convert the Julian calendar dates to their Gregorian calendar equivalents. Click here for help converting dates.
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