Feedback/Questions: Improve Residence Field Help: Ireland, Cork—Church Records, 1740–1913

genthusiast

This is mostly feedback and question for Project Admins. I am well aware of the option to Return Batch if I don't feel comfortable indexing/reviewing a batch. I am pointing out how improvement could assist those who are not experts in placenames/locations (especially the Reviewers who are responsible for 'signing off' on indexed locations). These improvements could be handled in pre-indexing processes OR the Instructions/Field Help could be clarified that such is handled in pre-publication processes (not likely as current placename problems indicate).

I am Reviewing a batch in this Project and feel that Residence field help could use some improvement.

Field Help: Residence reads:

1.Select the locality from the drop-down list.

2.If the locality has been abbreviated and you can tell what the abbreviation stands for, choose the locality from the drop-down list.

3.If the locality has been misspelled, choose the correct spelling from the drop-down list.

4.If the locality is not found in the drop-down list, or if a drop-down list has not been provided, type what you see on the image.

5.You should expand abbreviations or correct misspellings when you can tell what the abbreviation stands for or what the correction should be to the spelling.

6.Separate geographical levels of locality, from smallest to largest, with a comma.

7.Do not assume the name of the residence from other information on the document.

8.For a list of locations within Cork County, click here.

9.If the locality was not recorded or was written as a variation of the word "unknown," press Ctrl+B to mark this field blank.

10.Click here to see an example: Municetown

Comment on the numbered instructions above:

1. In this Project I have not seen a drop-down list for any Residence - line 8 provides the link to an alphabetized list of Cork placenames. I assume this means instruction line 1 is not an option and line 8 overrides this line.

Comment: Instructions lines 2-5 basically indicate that IF one can determine an abbreviation or variant/misspelling one should use the current spelling/location from the list.

6. Does this instruction mean only when there are geographical levels inscribed on each line/record OR does it mean I should be applying geographical level to each record because I have determined those levels from instruction line 5?

10. I wish the example provided were a little more clear. There is not indication of which County/Project this 1881 birth/baptism record example is from. Searching another resource does not find Municetown but does provide a few alternative options

https://www.logainm.ie/en/s?txt=municetown&str=on

... through a bit of work (which would be unnecessary if more parish/record information were provided) I located this record:

https://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000633847#page/3/mode/1up

From which I can deduce this location as Moneystown, Roundwood parish, County Wicklow - but is this what instruction 6 means or do I do what every other indexer appears to do and just enter Municetown (yes I realize a Wicklow Project would already imply that location - but shouldn't it also imply the Parish)? But certainly I would not have gotten that from the example without consulting other resources. In any event, what I am trying to point out is that Municetown is apparently a variant phonetic spelling instance of Moneystown - why should not that be included as a linked variant spelling? Also I don't think most indexers/reviewers will invest the time it takes to search out these locations but that is what the Reviewer contract basically implies (without location expertise one has to dig to possibly find locations referred to in these records).

Conclusion: Improvements could assist to make indexing of Residence field easier.

KLaRRees

Thank you for your careful and detailed information about the issue regarding the Place of Residence. We have given this information to other volunteers who are skilled in answering these questions and in short this is the information given:

We need to remember that these project instructions are made under contract with the project owners and they cannot be changed. For the Place of Residence please refer to the Field instructions.

The first line in the Field Help for Residence says “Type the locality”. It does not reference a drop-down list. However, the list is provided in the 5th paragraph to help the indexer/reviewer see if the information on their document is found on the list provided.

There is a list of areas for Cork County in the document provided in the Project Instructions. If the place is not listed there, you can type what you see.

We hope this helps in some way. Thank you again for the time and effort you take to index these great records!

genthusiast

Yes, as indicated I wish the instructions would be renegotiated with the project owners. They need to understand the instructions will not produce a more exact index as currently constituted.

Thanks for checking.