US, Massachusetts—Boston Tax Records, 1822–1918 [Part X) [M3B3-28Y]
This batch has 2 issues that I would like some feedback on.
1- The instructions say: Do not index location names such as "Store by Mary Anderson."
I am sure this question has come up before but I could not locate the answer. Recently we were advised to make an entry for the owners of companies if the given and surname name were available. In this batch most of the names listed are preceded by some type of shop by and then a full name. These individuals listed appear to be the proprietors of the shops. Do we make an entry for those individuals. The advise received and the instructions seem to be contradictory.
2- This image has an overlay. The overlay is in the owners column which we are not supposed to index. If I follow the general guidelines in relation to overlays, "Do not try to index any information underneath the overlay that may be visible." I would then mark this batch as no extractable data and hope that whoever indexed batch Ref image-2 would know the correct answer to question #1.
I am not trying to be sarcastic. I really would like to know the answer to question 1 and the proper way to index this document. It seems to me that if we follow the directions on this project we are leaving out a lot of individuals that could be found through these documents.
Best Answer
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Personally, I think "they" are making a mistake by not indexing every unique name on these records. But, "they" must have a reason - or the "owners of the records" know something we don't know and they don't need to be indexed. It's a good question. A search of Thomas Feeley shows that he was undertaker in Boston, McNeil Bros were contractors, C E Cummings was a cabinet furniture manufacturer, etc. (But, the instruction is clear - if it says Store by, or Undertaker shop by, we don't create a record for that name!)
I have to agree with you that your image (#69) could very well be marked No, No Extractable Data (NED) since the image is repeated on Images 67, 68, 69, and 70. It would be correct for the person who has Image 67 (or Reference Image -2) to index it and all the others to be marked NED.
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Answers
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We do not index Mary Anderson. The problem with assuming that Mary Anderson is the proprietor is that it is an assumption. For all we know, Mary Anderson could have been in the house across the street or down the block.
For #2, you would index the four individuals, Jeremiah, Alexander, Orlando and William.
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