Guatemala—Registro Civil, 1873–1975 [Parte D]
These marriage records have confused the indexers, and I am confused by them, also.
Could someone please send out better instructions to the Spanish Completion Team?
Most of the batches seem to have multiple entries about the same event. Indexers are marking many "No Extractable Data" and combining the information from the different entries. Should we be doing that? It's not in the project instructions.
Some entries are about only the groom or only the bride. They tend to be skipped entirely and marked NED. If I add the entries, then all the batches will need re-reviewing, of course. Should they be re-indexed?
I ended up returning all the batches I was working on yesterday because I didn't know what to do with them.
I would appreciate more guidance, and with more information, the quality of the reviewing should improve.
Best Answers
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I think that more recently reviewers have been encouraged to correct mistakes and not send things back for reindexing unless it is going to take an overwhelming amount of time. From the two I have downloaded it doesn't seem like it would take an overwhelming amount of time to index these.
I cannot see your batch, perhaps you have submitted it? From your description, The first image is NED, the second image would be the beginning of the marriage record for the bride and groom and that is where I would create the first entry using the third image and any appropriate reference image to fill in the blanks. The third image would be blank. I'd probably use a record number in the margin if there wasn't one handwritten like the example. But, you could just as easily mark it blank since we can't search on record numbers and "The completed index and links to digital images will be freely accessible online to the general public when the collection is published." So, the researcher will see the image and the various possible record numbers!
It sure would be nice if someone would take this information back to Indexing Operations and let them know the project instructions and the examples are incongruent. Could take a really long time to get this project reviewed...
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Hello Jan, thank you for sharing the batch link.
These marriage records can be confusing, they seem to have multiple entries about the same event well let me explain: these marriage records were made up to 9 pages for one couple as they bring witness declaration, certification of baptisms of the groom or bride and their writing is very spaced that it may occupy a page for little or not relevant information to index. You may end up making NED almost all you batch.
Combining the information from the different entries? it is not combining but taking information for subsequent images to your actual record. To index these records a careful check on the previous and next reference images is necessary to define where the actual marriage record starts and ends. We don't take information from a previous image on this project.
Some entries are about only the groom or only the bride. They tend to be skipped entirely and marked NED. It is possible to do that if you already have their information.
Also take a look at the Project instructions:
- If a record does not include a name for the primary person, you should still index the record, marking the primary name fields blank and indexing other names, such as names of the parents, along with any other fields that are present on the record.
- Some records continue from 1 page to the next, and the 2 pages are on separate images. Index only records that begin on the image you are working on. If any record continues to the next image, index all of the information for that record from both images in the data entry area for the image where the record begins.
- As per the example images #1: questions from 1 to 22 continued to image #2 with questions 23-25 it indicates that information from a subsequent image should be indexed in the image where the record begins. This results on having to declare those images left as you took their information as NED.
As per the batch you shared: [M3SH-CW4]:
Image 1 has started on a previous image (another batch) therefore it would be NED.
Image 2: Is a witness declaration of the couple.(we do not index information of witnesses) this image should also be NED.
Image 3: Is the image that has the complete information about the couple, names, age, parents.
You asked about the batch above: It needs to be re-indexed, but I feel like sending it back for re-indexing might not get better results? no it is correctly indexed-
Please do not hesitate to ask any other question regarding to this project. An advise is: before indexing read all the images- have a understanding of what is going on on the records, read the project instructions and the field help instructions. Happy indexing!
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I was waiting to see if maybe someone who works on this project might post. I am simply another volunteer who has indexed for 8 years.
I looked at a batch of these to see what the instructions were like. I think part of the problem is a conflict in the instructions.
The project instructions say:
- Some records continue from 1 page to the next, and the 2 pages are on separate images. Index only records that begin on the image you are working on. If any record continues to the next image, index all of the information for that record from both images in the data entry area for the image where the record begins.
This would be in line with the instructions for Records that Span two images and the second image (page) would be marked No, No Extractable Data.
The problem may be that the examples show that the records on page 1 and page 2 are indexed separately, and they make no mention of marking the 2nd page No, No Extractable Data.
I am attaching a link for a batch from the Part D mentioned above. I would have started the marriage record on Image 2 (the cover sheet), continued to fill in information from Image 3 on that record on Image 2, and marked Image 3, No Extractable Data. But, based on those crazy examples, I might also have indexed the information on Image 2 and 3 separately. (My Spanish classes were 40 years ago, but, I think that would be correct.) What do you think @JanAnderson ?
There are projects where we index every single image even when it is about the same individual(s). But, usually there is a project instruction saying to do so. These examples leave one wondering what to do - and the project is 99% indexed, but only 4% reviewed.
https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/e8daffbe-1096-4cde-b2e3-2d2d1e4cb229
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The indexers are confused, also.
In this batch, https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/ca60d813-850f-4dc8-a373-6dcc9240ca6d the indexer marked all the images NED. The first image is a continuation from a previous batch, and the second image has declarations that the bride and groom are truly single. But the third image starts the record of the marriage.
It needs to be re-indexed, but I feel like sending it back for re-indexing might not get better results. What do you think @MelissaHimes ? In general, reviewers are told not to spend a lot of time indexing.
It's also really confusing to figure out what record number to use because I haven't seen anything that resembles the example in the project instructions.
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Thanks for the comments. I'm hoping that at least the Spanish Completion team gets better instructions. I don't know how to request that.
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This project is open to all indexers, not just the Spanish Completion team. Hopefully there will more indexers and reviewers who follow the project instructions and ignore the examples. It is very unfortunate that this wasn't caught before the project was 99% indexed! Part C did not have the same examples, but, it did have the same project instruction. I will tag a few people in hopes that someone can pass this information along to "headquarters"
@CJohns7 @Mirevo @annewandering (Thanks in advance).
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To confirm my statement above and perhaps give more clarity please note the following:
What to Remember about This project, 6th bullet point – we index only the primary event – in this case, the marriage. We do not index subsequent records about baptisms, births, or deaths, or witness statements. If there is no specific marriage record (the name of the bride and/or the groom and a date) on a guest’s batch, the batch should be marked No, No Extractable Data. This occurs frequently when there are multiple documents which will not be indexed.
What to Remember about This Project, 7th bullet point, indicates we index only the records which begin on the guest’s batch. If information for that record continues to the next image, we can use the reference image to gather all of the relevant information about that specific marriage and data which should be indexed in the provided fields.
What to Remember about This Project, 2nd bullet point, states that the index and links to the digital images will be freely accessible to the public when the collection is published. Researchers will be able to view those additional records at that time. We are only creating the index of the marriage facts.
We encouraged you to make the corrections on the review batches, based on the instructions provided with the batch. Thank you very much for your desire to look for clarification on how to index these records.
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Are you reporting the poorly indexed examples, @Mirevo? How could they possibly have gotten through with no regard to records that span two images until it was 99% indexed? That is amazing.
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