Boston Tax Records

galebj

I have 2 questions:

1. should records with "jr" be indexed. If so is "jr" omitted. Eg: John Jr and John
2. If there is are duplicate names with different occupations should they be index as unique.

John Empoliti

Hi @galebj

1) YES-omit Jr. jr is a Suffix (follows a name) and there is a Field for a Prefix (term or title like Mr. or Mrs or Dr or Rev that precedes a name) but not for a Suffix. So we drop the jr or Sr or II or 2nd etc.

2) NO -they shouldn’t. Occupations are not captured (indexed) fields, so they don’t affect/induce “uniqueness” for indexing purposes - In this project. The real test of “uniqueness” is whether the resulting entries are different. E.g., for the same year (1915 as below) two persons named Matthew A Desmond, no prefix, one a farmer and one a cooper, say, are both adequately represented by the single entry below. Matthew A the farmer and Matthew A the cooper would generate Identical (not unique) entries, so create it only once. Researchers will see their different occupations when a search draws them to the image, and they can find their relative Matthew A accordingly. To put an exclamation point on it, the system deletes all but the first identical consecutive entries.

If the cooper were named Matthew A and the farmer were named Matthew (no A) the story would be different - they would each get a separate entry because those entries would be different from one another I.e. “unique.”

galebj

2 is what I thought.

1 does that mean they are different or the same?

John Empoliti

If the only difference is the Jr suffix, the entries will be the same, so only one is needed.

So, for example. If you had a John Smith and a John Smith Jr., and the same date (say 1915) since we don't index Jr, their entries would look like these:

For John Smith: Date:1915 Surname: Smith Prefix: <Blank> Given Names: John

For John Smith Jr: Date:1915 Surname: Smith Prefix: <Blank> Given Names: John

So, you can see that both entries are the same, so you need only one entry to represent both John Smith and his son.

If the project had a Suffix field, then the Jr would be indexed, and the resulting entries would be different for the two men - one entry would have Jr in the Suffix field, and the other's Suffix field would be <Blank>, and you'd need both. But as it is, the entries are the same, so you only need one.