Number of children in family on Wisconsin birth certificates.

LegacyUser

Betty Ann Grimes said: In the Wisconsin indexing data, there is information on the birth certificates that lists the number of children already in the family and how many of them are alive. This information would be invaluable to add to the template for each form.

LegacyUser

A van Helsdingen said: When deciding which information to index, there is a balance between including as much data as possible and making it easier and quicker to index. Obviously having more information will take longer to index. FS must also have permission from the record owners to index.

LegacyUser

Paul said: Providing there is no restriction that has been set by the record owners, I agree it is very important to index such detail. The 1911 England & Wales census also noted the number of children - dead and living - and has been of considerable help to me. I have either realised I have found all family members of that generation, or need to search a little more to find the "missing" ones. Usually, these will have died, but often a child will have been staying overnight with grandparents or another family member, so won't be found with the rest of the family.

In general, I do not support the argument that it is useful to leave important data out for the sake of completing an indexing project more quickly. For example, many burial collections are of little help if the (available) age at death has not been indexed, but I have found found this omission to be quite common. The usual argument is that one can always consult the original documents, but that is not always easy, especially in times like this - FHCs closed and no access to the material from home, etc..

As with all aspects of genealogical research, quality should be the main factor. Providing there is permission to do so, I would expect all data that is of importance (as in Betty's example) to be indexed.

BrownGaleElwene1

One of my trainers tells us all the time that we are building a bridge to the documents for the patrons to find. If we help them find the certificate, they will see how many children were in the family.