Overlays assistance - reviewing Middlessex Parish Registers, 1539–1988 [Part B]

Alan Chard

https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/499ff463-fd75-4a2e-b08b-f439c52f5277

Marriage banns, Middlesex: there are many overlays within this register. I have not come across these before. The general guidelines says . . .

• If the overlay contains information about a record type being indexed in the project, create a separate record, and index the information in the corresponding fields. If it does not pertain to the record type being indexed in the project, then do not index any information from it.
• Do not try to index any information underneath the overlay that may be visible.

The page has 3 entries and the overlay one entry. Reading the second bullet point of the guildelines suggests that only the overlay should be indexed. When I look at the reference images there are entries on the page of the register that are only visible in 'my batch'. I think they should be indexed, otherwise they will not be added to the database.

AThayneGreen

The 3 records whose information you can see are not underneath the overlay. They should be indexed, a should the overlay. No attempt should be made to index the record that is actually underneath the overlay.

Mirevo

 Yes, we agree with your statement. We would recommend – in this instance – that the first three records and the overlay be indexed in the batch for this reason: This project consists of many images similar to this batch. We reviewed the film and did not find a complete document without any overlays within the film. 

This is contrary to the General Indexing Guidelines for overlays; however, this appears to be the only way to make these records searchable for this batch.

While it doesn’t pertain to this specific batch, if an overlay covers part of an entry, please do not index the partial record below the overlay. Index only the complete entry. In most situations, we would only index the overlay on an image. This batch is an exception to that instruction.

Alan Chard

Thank you for clarifying; my thoughts exactly but it's really useful to have another view.

BTW when I search the forum then click the results I get an error message saying I can't access the post, do you know who I should tell about that?