Illinois [Part D] - Another question about Color or Race.
Batch [MQ2Q-NC3] has the Race entered as (So. Italian). Enter that?
Answers
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So. Italian is correctly index. "So." could refer to either southern or south, but we don't 100% know and it's not our job to assume.
1930-1940(ish) have just the race listed. The race will be listed as So. Italian, Germany, Hebrew, etc.0 -
The Field Help says, "Do not index the nationality". Do not select "Other" unless directly specified on the record. Should I just ignore these instructions?
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Nationality is different from color and race. My race could be English, but my nationality is Canadian. You'll see this with people that are born in Canada because Canada did, and still does, belong to the English Commonwealth. If there is a nationality on the form, do not index it because Nationality is the country that you belong to; ie American, Russian, Canadian. "Other" (And I've never come across "other" in any of the Nat documents I've indexed) is just that, other. It just means that somebody doesn't know their race/color or the typist got frustrated and put "Other" or any number of other things. Just remember that we weren't there at the date of the document; I have one now that's from 1933. That's 47 years before I showed up 😄.
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