DISCREPANCY IN THE PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS FOR US, Pennsylvania, Western District—Naturalizations, 1820
OVERLAY DISCREPANCY
The reviewer instructions for this project tell us:
- If a document behind an overlay shows a record that should be indexed in this project and the document is not shown on another image in the same batch, index as much of it as you can see. This instruction is an exception to the "General Indexing Guidelines" and should only be used for this project.
Unfortunately, the project instruction for the indexers never say this:
How to Index Overlays
- An overlay is a document or note that partially covers another document. Some images show 2 pages—1 page is covered or partially covered by an overlay, and the other page is a record that is normally indexed.
- If the overlay shows a record that should be indexed in this project, index the overlay.
The General Guidelines link will tell the indexer not to index any information under the overlay. Do not try to index any information underneath the overlay that may be visible.
FACTS FOR PETITIONS DOCUMENTS
The instructions do not address the Facts for Petition documents. Are they being considered depositions and will not be indexed? If they are being indexed, does the indexer do a look back to the previous image to capture the wife's name? Or does the indexer create a document without the primary's name and index only the wife's given name (and surname if it has been written) and her birth year?
RECORD NUMBER FIELD HELP
Why does the field help for Record Number say:
Do not index the page number or petition number in this field.
And then later it says:
If each document has a different record number, index the Record Number from the Petition of Naturalization.
Miscellaneous
Why are we indexing United States on some of the Petition example and not the other?
On the How To Index Petition for Citizenship, only Pennsylvania is indexed.
Why aren't we indexing all of the locations on other documents?
On the combination image, clearly the locations of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania and United States are seen on the Declaration. Those locations are not included in the indexed example. They have omitted Pittsburgh and Allegheny.
Indication of Gender
Since the petitions also use the word "he" in the sworn to statement, shouldn't that identify the petition as a Male in the How To Index a Petition for Naturalization, 1? The example does not have Male indexed.
Comments
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Here is a link to a batch I indexed according to the instructions for a reviewer. Perhaps someone can review and see if you think it is correct. Thanks in advance!
https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/d9b6ae49-2d61-4adb-a6e6-00e34bb2fc1b
And here is I link to a batch that I reviewed, adding in a record for the Oath since "the document is not shown on another image in the same batch, index as much of it as you can see."
https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/f379948e-a5f5-4818-b25e-914baa13c284
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Here's my third review of the morning. Besides not looking at the example for how to index an Oath, the person combined the information on the overlay (The back of the Facts for Petition) with the Oath.
The person on the Facts is married to the man on the NEXT image (John Bombalek). Should there be another record created for Mary?
- 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 the name of the spouse, along with any other fields that are present on the record.
According to the review instructions and the project instructions, I think there would be as follows:
[Given Name]: <blank>
[Surname]: <blank>
[Spouses Given Name]: Mary
[Spouses Surname]: <blank>
[Spouses Birth Year]: 1886
https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/e2babd7b-c3b0-447c-82ed-df6b03f3cec0
Or - is this considered a Deposition or an "Affidavit of Witnesses" and thus the Facts are no longer being indexed? The instructions need to say not to index FACTS OF PETITION, if that is the case.
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The overlay rule should be, imo, where what's under the overlay is indexed. It doesn't make sense to have two different instructions.
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It depends on the project. For this project, the rule should be DO NOT index what is under the overlay since the information is either in a previous or subsequent batch. But, until they fix it - there are still a couple of problems with the re-release of the project! I sure hope someone in charge is monitoring this page on the holiday.
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Melissa, on the batch above that you reviewed (in which you added the second entry for the Oath): why is the record place New York and not Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for entry 2?
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@tndavis I haven't submitted these yet and was hoping that someone would notice the Record Place needs to be Pittsburgh! Glad to see that the post was read and the links were accessed! Ding, ding, ding...you are a winner!!!
I think they have added to the project instructions for overlays to say:
- If the document behind the overlay is a record that should be indexed in this project, do not index the information on the partially-covered document.
However, the WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHILE REVIEWING section still says:
- If a document behind an overlay shows a record that should be indexed in this project and the document is not shown on another image in the same batch, index as much of it as you can see. This instruction is an exception to the "General Indexing Guidelines" and should only be used for this project.
So, nothing has been corrected. I'll hold on to these until they expire tomorrow.
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Thanks! :D
And thanks especially for trying to get these discrepancies fixed.
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@KLaRSaint, can you help Melissa S Himes out here? Pennyrose also had a similar question in PA Naturalization Records. I have referred her over to this post.
Thanks, 🙂
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The Reviewer Instruction has now been changed:
- If the document behind an overlay is a record that should be indexed in this project, do not index the information on the partially-covered document.
The other minor discrepancies have not been addressed.
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