The Gowanda Natural Gas Co

RasmussenGloriaJ

In the New York Land Records, Grantors & Grantees batches.

Should the word "The" be indexed?

Susan Ann Mullen

It helps if we have the Shared Batch code so we are sure to have the correct instructions for your batch.

This is the instruction for "US, New York, Capital—Index to Land Records, Grantees, 1630–1975 [Part A]"

If that is not the project you are asking about the instruction may vary although it is likely the same for this type of record.

In the Field Help for Grantee Corporations, bullet point 1, we read: "Type the full grantee corporation or organization name as it was written. Do not correct misspellings or expand abbreviations."

The is part of the full name.

John Empoliti

Yes, if it is written on the record. Sometimes you'll see (The) - in parentheses - off to the left under the heading for a "T" in the Grantee or Grantor column (depending on the sorting order). For example (The) National Savings Bank, etc.

RasmussenGloriaJ

US, New York, Erie—Index to Land Records, Grantors, 1630–1975 [Part A][M3M9-SKQ]

and I have worked on US, New York, Monroe—Index to Land Records, Grantees, 1630–1975 [Part A]

John Empoliti

Yes, you do include the "The." It is part of the name (as@annewandering also said), and, as I expected, it is in the T column (Q R S T), to be precise), as often happens with these NY Land Record projects.

CORRECTION or CONFLICT: Someone - I won't say who, but her initials are MSH - has pointed out to me that the example and Field Help for this project US, New York, Erie—Index to Land Records, Grantors, 1630–1975 [Part A] conflict.

Usually, the Field Help trumps other instructions, but I'll let the Moderators contact those in authority to determine which we should follow. Do we follow the written FH instruction or the judgment of the composer of the Example, who I presume is reading and following the exact instructions as we? If we're not following the FH, perhaps the Project Manager may want to amend it.

FH says DO: "The Field Help for Grantee Corporation reads: Type the full grantee corporation or organization name as it was written. Do not correct misspellings or expand abbreviations."

The Example says DON'T: The Example says this - i.e., Don't index the full name of the Grantee Corporation. Instead, drop the "The."

John Empoliti

Further on this issue. The Example in question has the following title:

The batch that @RasmussenGloriaJ shared was handwritten, not typed. So does the FH prevail after all?

Susan Ann Mullen

We will report this. Thanks for pointing it out. The conflicting example appears to have disappeared!

John Empoliti

Interesting. Hopefully not from my comment. We can all thank MSH.

Lisa Kay Horlacher

@annewandering Please include me in your reply to the above question. I am working on

US, New York, Erie—Index to Land Records, Grantors, 1630–1975 [Part A][MS11-DFB]

I have always included The if it was written. In the instructions, there is still an example that is for typed records that does not include The in the entry field.

Thanks, John for pointing this out.

Thanks, Lisa kay horlacher

slotbuddy

It will be very interesting to hear the results from support since this project is about 95% completed. I, too, have always included the words THE if it was written.

Melissa S Himes

It really doesn't matter, except it would be nice to establish consistency throughout the Land Records indexing projects. The places will be located with or without the "The" on whatever search engine is being used by whomever these are being indexed for. (We can't search on Company Names in FamilySearch. However, public record dumps do offer some interesting results, like Name: Water Works Ticonderoga on a search for Surname: Ticonderoga.) https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?q.surname=ticonderoga

There probably won't be any advisement on these particular projects, but, at least John has pointed out that the examples or the field helps need to be tightened up in the future.