US—City and Business Directories, 1749–1990 [Part B] [MSLJ-SHN]

debennion

In these directories they ask you to list surnames once with a dash if others following are the same surname. What I am wondering is if the following entries should have a '-' in place of the surname as it lists this as a problem when you go to submit the batch without something in the surname spot.

deniseleavitt1

I think it means that you just continue with that same surname until a new one comes up.

I am a visual person, so let me try and show you a made-up example...

Smith, Adam, baker, h 123 Washington

-- Alma, clrk, h 234 Georgia ave

--Brent, grocer, h 345 Atlanta st

--Calvin, lawyer, h 456 Smithview ave

Smiths, Dedrick, driver, h 567 Greensfield dr

So all the names with dashes, I would think you put Smith as the surname for each of them. Until the new and different name starts. To me it would be Smith, Alma. Smith, Brent. Smith, Calvin. Smiths, Dedrick.

Does that help any? I hope I am right, cause that's what I would do.

Good luck!

Denise

John Empoliti

@debennion - I agree with Denise. Sorry I missed the point of your question. The dash is essentially equivalent to a ditto in this case.

John Empoliti

@debennion consider joining the Indexing Chat Group. Here is one version of the guidance on not indexing duplicate entries (i.e. indexing only unique entries). This is from the big banner that greets you when you open a batch in this Project. There is no mention of dashes.

Index each unique name. Some names may be duplicated. When names are exact duplicates, index only the first instance of the name listed. Skip the other exact duplicates and then index the next unique name. Unique names include names with different middle initials, spouses listed with the individual, and different name spellings.

This means that if the ENTRIES for two individuals would be identical, then you should only index one instance of those identical Entries. What makes two Entries for John Smith different? Not their address and not their occupation. We don’t capture those data. If one John Smith had a spouse and the other didn’t, then their ENTRIES would be different, so we’d need to Index both of them. If one had a middle initial and the other didn’t, then the resulting ENTRIES would be different, and we’d need to index both. They have to differ in an INDEXED Field in order to be considered different, I,e, unique. So, if you encounter a succession of individuals named John Smith who only differ in addresses and occupations, and not in any INDEXED Field, then you index the first one, and skip the rest (no dashes needed, just ignore them) until you encounter another “unique” person, I.e. one who would generate a different ENTRY. It could be a John J Smith, or a John Smith with a spouse, or maybe a J J Smith.

debennion

• Surnames may be listed once with a dash signaling the name should be carried down to following names. Use the same surname until a new surname is given.

Thank you for trying to explain this. That part I do get about skipping exact names etc. But what about this part?