US, New York, Capital—Index to Land Records, Grantees, 1630–1975 [Part A][MSYV-SX9]

J. Britt Franklin

I began reviewing subject batch this morning. The number of records recorded for the batch when indexed was 10. Just a cursory look at the actual batch and I guessed there were at least 80 or more records. (It's an index.) I checked the ten records which had been "indexed" and not a single record was completed accurately, in any field.

I'm about halfway through the batch now and will complete it within the next hour or so. So far there are 42 records in the first half of the batch.

I wanted to just pass along that somehow the original batch got corrupted or the indexer decided it was too difficult. This kind of really messed up batch doesn't come along very often so I thought it was unusual enough to at least let you know about it.

John Empoliti

Whether the Indexer was malicious or uninformed, that batch sounds like a mess when you got it. If I were in “Reviewer” mode and encountered a batch like that I probably would have selected “Reindex” with the option to “delete indexed data.” But kudos for correcting it.

J. Britt Franklin

Thanks for the review. I decided that since I was already in it I might as well finish it off. I just completed it and began a new batch. Thank you for your service.

slotbuddy

I've noticed a lot of errors on the New York, Capital, Land Records . Some of the batches have errors on just about every line. I think the errors are not malicious but are being caused because a lot of the records are typed and the newer indexers are assuming they are easier to do and do not always read all the instructions. I had one batch that had a lot of organizations and every organization was typed with the ampersand included. The indexer obviously did not read the instructions and did not change the ampersand to and.

If there were 2 grantees and the first grantee only showed a name and the info was included on the 2nd line with the 2nd grantee, the indexer would only index the grantee's name and nothing else.

These are just a few examples of the type of errors that I am seeing but I'm sure it is just because the indexers are new and it is not anything malicious.

Mary Cederquist

I am not seeing instructions on how to index an entry when there are 2 Grantees in the Illinois Land Records I'm indexing. Could that be the reason for so many errors? Please tell me where to find that info. I have read the Project Notes, looked at samples and the info on the purple question mark. None tell me how to index two Grantees.

John Empoliti

Hi Mary

If you have two qualifying (not a corporation or government official) Grantors or Grantees, you make an entry for each one. Here, from What to Remember About This Project (WTR) is the paragraph that rules here. But also read about how to handle non-qualifying ones in other parts of that same WTR section.

• Index each entry or document independently. Some grantors or grantees may be listed several times. Index each occurrence as a separate entry. 

Furthermore, if you had 2 grantors and, say, 3 grantees, you would make 2x3=6 entries, one for each pair, unless both members of a pair were non-qualifying, in which case you skip that pair (per WTR).

Mary Cederquist

Thanks, John. I guess I misread that part of the What to Remember section.

Is that also true when the grantors are obviously married?

Susan Ann Mullen

The marriage relationship does not matter. Each person is indexed as an individual.

Thanks for asking!