Keep Surname in Place?
I'm currently working on reviewing US—City Directories, 1903–1935 [Part N] [MQ5B-8H7]. The Project Instructions state, "A spouse's name, if listed, may have been recorded in parentheses after the name of the principal individual. The surname should be indexed for both individuals." In the one image in the batch none of the names in parentheses show a surname; however, the person who indexed the batch sometimes included their surname, based on what the surname of the spouse whose name was not in parentheses, and sometimes didn't. There are 201 entries in this batch and I started blanking out the Spouse's Surname field whenever it did show the surname, but now I'm wondering if I should be doing that. Does my concern make sense?
Answers
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You quoted the instructions:
"A spouse's name, if listed, may have been recorded in parentheses after the name of the principal individual. The surname should be indexed for both individuals."
That tells you to add the principal's surname to the spouse's given name that's in parentheses. The indexer is correct to add the surname to the spouse's name that's in parentheses.
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I understand that point. I was thrown off by the fact that the indexer was inconsistent about how they handled it. And I thought I'd seen notes before saying to not assume the surname of the spouse if it's not mentioned outright. Anyways, thank you.
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The spouse information in this project is exclusive to this project. From the pop-up box at the beginning of the batch:
Please note that for this project there are special instructions for indexing surnames and deceased individuals that differ from the General Indexing Guidelines. These instructions should not be applied to other projects. Further, do not index names associated with businesses, advertisements, or any other names not associated with the residents. Index only names of residents as they appear.
Other projects, like the Naturalization projects follow the GIG (and are usually in the Spouse Surname Field Help).1 -
Yes, thank you. I remembered seeing that at the beginning of this batch and tried to find it again when I stumbled on the issue at least somewhat related to it. I then looked at the part again that says, "A spouse's name, if listed, may have been recorded in parentheses after the name of the principal individual. The surname should be indexed for both individuals," and wondered, "Is that statement alone enough to warrant applying the first spouse's surname to the second's when the second's isn't mentioned?"
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