Event date when document date is a date range

Tom Eccles

I am indexing Bureau of Land Management Tract Books. Instructions for event month, day, and year say, "If multiple dates were given for the same transaction, index the most recent date." Often the document lists both the beginning and end date that access is granted to a tract. In my mind, the beginning date should be entered in the date field rather than the end date even though the end date is "the most recent date." The reason is because the beginning date is closer to a date the individual was actually known to be involved in an event. He could have be dead by the end date. Please give this some thought and consider what the instructions should say about how to enter a date that is a date range in the original document.