Missing First Page
I am indexing US, New England—Petitions for Naturalization, 1787–1906 [Part E] [MQDG-NRV]. Worchesther CTY 1904 Vol 26#5. 2 pages are included, but it appears the first page to this is missing. It starts with a questionaire, rather the the name of the petitioner. I am new, can you advise me if this is right. The other ones I looked at didn't have a format that started in the middle. Thanks
Answers
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The first page isn't missing; it's just not part of your batch.
These naturalization records have a variable number of pages, which means that a two-image indexing batch can have any combination of consecutive images: pages 1 and 2 for Person A, or pages 2 and 3 for Person A, or page 2 for Person A and page 1 for Person B, or page 3 for person A and page 1 for person B (and so on, although I don't know if there are any four-page files; I believe two is most common).
In general, you index any entry that begins in your batch, using the reference images as needed to get the tail end. So for example if you were dealing with three-page files and got someone's page 2 and 3, the entire batch would be "no, no extractable data", since the entry didn't begin in your batch. However, the naturalizations projects add a complication: some parts of some pages (namely, Oaths) are treated as separate entries, even though they're for the same person.
It appears that your batch is pages 2 and 3 from Albert E McGee's file, and page 3 contains his Oath. The first image is therefore NED, while the second is indexed; it matches very well with the example of an Oath in the instructions (https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/images?fs-cache=true&key=idx-deepzoom-image&image=6d5812d9-3d2b-40fd-b9fc-1fdc67eac55a).
(You can see the prior and following images by using the reference images in the indexing tool, or you can use the "About Batch" option of the Batch menu to get the film and image number and look at the whole film that your batch came from: https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007283176?i=260&cc=2064580.)
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