Electoral Role - Gender
Indexer has not selected gender. Batch after batch needing to choose M or F on every line certainly slows down the process but is important to have for these older records especially in NZ where records are so few. Best way to sort this out please? Any way to advise the indexer?
New Zealand—Electoral Rolls, 1865–1957[MSWS-NXY]
Best Answer
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The indexer is advised by a pop-up message at the beginning of each batch of this project:
"Indexing the Sex Field
In very few cases, the occupation may be used to determine the sex, but do not assume the sex of a person based on the occupation unless the occupation or status is clearly male or female. Do not assume the sex of a person based on given names.
If the sex can not be clearly determined, please mark the Sex field blank."
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Answers
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The answer to your second question is that there is no way to advise the indexer directly.
When asking questions about a specific batch it is always a good practice to share the batch. Since this forum is monitored by FamilySearch employees they might be able to, if they consider it appropriate, advise the indexer.
When asking a question in this forum, as a courtesy to those who will read it, I like to share the name of the project that prompted the question as well as the batch information.
One of the easiest ways to do both is to copy the project name with the batch code (the 8 characters inside the square brackets at the right end of the project name) and paste that into the message. When the batch is open in the indexing tool, the project name and batch code are found in the center of the indexing tool menu line; when the batch is closed, the project name and batch code are found in the My Batches area of your Web Indexing page.
Even though it is more work for me, I also like to make the full batch name into a link to the batch I am sharing. Doing this makes it easier for others to help me because in addition to allowing them to see which project I am asking about without opening the batch, it provides a way to quickly open the batch by clicking the link.
Here are the steps to create a link in this way:
1. Copy the full batch name from the heading line of the Indexing Tool or from the My Batches area of your Web Indexing page.
2. Paste the full batch name into your message, then select the text that you pasted (press Shift and click the first letter of the project name)
3. Switch to the indexing tool tab and copy the URL (located in the browser address field or the Share Batch dialog box)
4. Switch to the tab with the message and click the link tool icon in the context toolbar that appeared when you selected the project name (it is the last icon on the right, it looks like two links of a chain).
5. Paste the batch’s URL into the Link URL box (W-PC: Ctrl-V, Mac: Cmd-V)
6. Press Return/Enter to cause the text to be shown as a link.
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Have a look at this discussion from a few days ago: https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/comment/269755#Comment_269755
If there's no mention of a gender, then you shouldn't index it. Don't assume a gender from first names or occupations.
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Hi all, Thanks for the info.
If the sex can not be clearly determined, please mark the Sex field blank.
We are working through the 1896 role here - name and occupation, in most cases, clearly define gender. However the work I am reviewing is missing every gender field and I guess the question is, is it really worth adding it in. Having spent a decade researching my family tree I can tell you that being able to search for Ja Cameron (very common in 1800s New Zealand) AND filter by gender would be a massive help.
I just want to get it right.....for future researchers if nothing else.
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Hi Tania, I'm also in NZ doing this project. As the other replies explained and the instructions indicate, most Sex fields will be correct to be indexed Blank, when we do that we are following the requirements of the owner of the records. The indexer can decide the sex for themselves when they see the same record as we saw when we indexed/reviewed the batch. if I can help with any other questions on the NZ Rolls, feel free to email me on gailfdavies@gmail.com.
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