In US, Wisconsin—Death Records, 1959–1978 How do I mark the country of residence and birth?

AmesPatriciaLynne1

I have been reviewing Wisconsin death records, and almost every one of the indexed records has both a state and country listed for birth and residence. The field help for birth location clearly states that if a state is listed, then mark the country as "blank". It also says not to assume the country of residence based on the city and state. Looking at the examples also shows not to do those things. I realize that the' instructions on the actual document say to list the state if they were born in the USA, so this may be where the confusion lies.

Please clarify this for me, as I am starting to doubt my ability to read directions.

davidleelambert

I asked basically this same question here the other day, and the consensus seems to be that indexers and arbitrators should leave country blank where a state is specified.

(Although that leaves open the possibility that the country "United States of America" will be added in post-processing for those records.)

maryellenstevensbarnes1

@AmesPatriciaLynne1 - Hi, you are reading the instructions correctly - when a State is listed, mark the Residence Country and the Birth Country <Blank>. In reviewing, you need to correct the errors made by the indexer and change the box to <Blank>😎

AmesPatriciaLynne1

Thanks for your answer. It does ease my mind a bit. I have reviewed about 9 batches so far, and only one of them was done as per instructions.

AmesPatriciaLynne1

Thank you, I'm starting to get my confidence back.

maryellenstevensbarnes1

You're welcome and yes, indexers are "hurrying" thru Wisconsin Deaths and generally not taking time to read instructions -- you'll notice they also confuse Country of Birth with Citizenship Status 😎

HowlettWade

Good Clarification that the Citizenship Status is not the same as the "Birth Country"