South Africa—Dutch Reformed Church Registers, 1660–1970 [Part D][M3FV-5D6]
Image Name 008039095_00509 Batch IDM3FV-5D6
I'm reviewing these records that were indexed as births. however, they are baptism records, not birth records. I have looked forward at the previous 5 record's images, but there is no baptism date. I also looked backward and on the 5th record (-5), it shows a baptism date of 25 Jan 1863.
I'm going to change the type and re-enter all of the data, but I need someone with a little more moxie than I have to look further back and get the baptism date that is dittoed in all of these records. here is the top of the page
Answers
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The film containing this batch/DGS is not publicly viewable therefore I'm not seeing any way as a public user to view further back images. I assume a FamilySearch representative with access will need to respond.
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genthusiast, I am not in Admin, but I find the same problem as Dennis.
Can you please explain steps-wise how to look up the batches in the catalogue. I have the same problem as Dennis. Sometimes I can go into some by using just the Image Group # and other times I cannot.
I was under the impression that a DGS batch is just for us to extract the film to see the town or province to be able to finalize our indexing/reviewing records. You cannot type South Africa all the time if the book has another page where you are able to see where the baptism are taking place?
Can you help us?
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You should leave them as births since they have no baptism dates but do have birth dates (i.e., geb). Following General Indexing Guidelines and the field helps, when there is no date on the image, then no date is indexed, UNLESS there is an instruction to look backward or forward to find the date. Since there is no baptism date, the fields are marked blank.
For this project the field help for Day, Month, Year is the same;
"If the day was not recorded or was written as a variation of the word "unknown," press Ctrl+B to mark this field blank."
Also following the project instructions, these would not be recorded using the baptism template since there are not two dates. "Records with both birth and baptism dates should be indexed using the baptism template."
South Africa is no where on that image, so it would not be indexed and place would be marked blank.
The goal is to create a searchable database so researchers can find their family members. We are not the researchers, we are the indexers and are making a copy of what is on the image.
This image group does not appear to be available to any users and the completed indexes and images "may have restrictions".
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Melissa, these are baptism records, I know because that is how baptist records were written in those days. Also, they don't have witnesses to a birth, they have witnesses to a child who was baptized in the church. That was standard procedure.
They usually wrote the first entry for that day with the specific date of baptism, and then all the children who were baptzied on that day as ditto's. The following baptism event date is then written after that and so on.
This batch doesn't have a camera image at the end of the line, just a note that this batch is somewhere else, and I cannot find that batch. That batch will have the film of the page with the baptist date.
Hester
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Melissa, the batch name is clearly: South Africa—Dutch Reformed Church Registers, 1660–1970
If there is no place name on the page and one cannot find the info elsewhere, then South Africa will be the place name, not Blank.
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after reading all the comments, I've re-entered as baptisms and used only the year (1863) for the baptism (taken from the +5 image of the same continuation of the same type of image). that way, we have a real baptism record with a highly likely year, not a birth record.
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Can you please explain steps-wise how to look up the batches in the catalogue. I have the same problem as Dennis. Sometimes I can go into some by using just the Image Group # and other times I cannot.
Sorry I did not get your tag because it had no [@]
From Dennis' initial post:
Image Name 008039095_00509 Batch IDM3FV-5D6
8039095 is usually the film number ( I guess sometimes it might be DGS) - either way you can look that up in the Catalog:
509 is usually the image number in the resulting film/collection.
The result indicates it is only available as microfilm (probably only at FSL in Salt Lake):
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genthusiast, thank you for the answer. I also have come to the end where you have circled the last small icon, but didn't know where else to look for it.
Hester
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That DGS is not found in Search> Images so I don't think there is anywhere else to look at the moment. I think I am seeing more and more Indexing Projects that have removed the DGS (some do still take you to images).
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@Hester Korff Wolmarans, we do not take the name of the place from the title of the projects. If we did, then the examples would show South Africa as a place. The examples do not have a place indexed when none exist, nor do they index South Africa.
The same applies to dates. When there is no date on the image, and the instructions do not say to use reference images to obtain a date, then the date is blank. Clearly, the only date on this image is the birth date. So, even if you decide to use the Baptism form, only the birth date should be indexed. Everyone needs to follow the rules of indexing and the project instructions. This is why it takes so long to get these projects completed.
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after a bit more searching I was able to locate images some of which I believe would be in this collection - Some of the correct record type but none for the listed dates (as far as I can see).
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It seems you are searching in the right direction. These numbers are all 8039250. Is this the numbers you were looking for? Mine is 8039095 and the page that I am working an event date 1832 and onwards.
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Yes that particular DGS is not found no matter how hard I've looked... Almost like the indexing Project removed it from existence. Probably due to film roll restrictions.
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Thank you for your explanation. Your second paragraph makes perfectly sense when you use a baptist form. I would gladly index just the birth date as the rules state, that will take a lot less time to do the batches. Some of us won't want to use only the birth date, because we know somewhere on the previous pages is the event date.
As for your first paragraph,what examples are you refering to? Doesn't the title tells you where the batches, films or records comes from? You certainly wont get a baptist record from California for instance in a South African batch? The reason why I say we must index South Africa as a place name if there is no place name on the page that we are working on, it gets send back for reviewing because the place name is indexed as Blank.
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I am referring to the examples in the Project Instructions that you find when you click on the links under what to Index, i.e., How to Index a Baptism Register, Examples 1 and 2. They do not include South Africa from the title. I have never seen an indexing project where faced with the lack of a place name, we are instructed to use the information from the project title. Examples in various projects simple do not index the place name when none exists. This project is no different, as there is no instruction to use South Africa. But, there is an instruction in the field help to mark the field blank.
If the locality was not recorded or was written as a variation of the word "unknown," press Ctrl+B to mark this field blank.
Things do not get sent back for reviewing because the place name is Blank. Every batch gets reviewed at least once. A reviewer should delete South Africa if it is not seen on the image.
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First, I offer my apologies for providing incorrect instructions on the dates. I did some research last night and went through multiple pages of the Help feature to learn more about indexing dates. There may have been a change in the general indexing date instructions in 2021, which hasn't been included in the drop-down in the project instructions. If you can determine the date from a previous image, you should at least use the year.
How do I index a record with missing dates?
Article Id: 1693
June 22, 2021
If a date is missing from the source document, try to determine at least the year. Records are often listed chronologically, and you might be able to determine the year by looking at the previous or next image for the record.
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Thanks Melissa
Hester
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