Family Review Surnames with Dashes
When I began helping with the census project my impression was that surnames would be substituted for dashes during the Family Review process. But, now that I want to help complete the state of Nevada, I want to learn family review better. At first I filled in surnames that had the dash but decided to checked the "field notes" for family review. The field notes say to leave the surname blank if it is blank. No mention whatsoever about if the field has a dash. I certainly WANT to add the surnames. What should I do?
Guess I'll go back to name or header review for now rather than doing it wrong.
Best Answer
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@GregBeers1 , Thank you so much for your comment and perception. I will try to definitively answer your concerns as best I can. I will quote from a knowledge article which can be found by clicking on the circle with the question mark in the upper right corner of this page in the menu bar. In the drop-down box at the bottom you will see Help Center. Click on that and type in 1950 in the search bar. This will bring up articles having to do with the 1950 census.
For your particular concern the article is titled "How do I review hyphens, dashes, and empty spaces in the Surname Field?"
A hyphen, dash, or empty space in the Surname field signifies that the person's last name is the same as the person from the line above.
The correct review action depends on whether you are reviewing names or reviewing families.
Name Review
Leave the name as is and mark as a Match.
Family Review for the 1950 US Census
Replace the dash with the appropriate surname.
I hope that you find it helpful to go to the Help Center and read the many articles which you will find useful as you review these records. We really appreciate your hard work and willingness in participating in this project.
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Answers
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Same question for birth place
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@withthecia have you looked at the example on this page? It shows the surnames being entered when there is a dash on the record. https://www.familysearch.org/en/info/1950-us-census-project-frequently-asked-questions
Since the dashes are serving as ditto marks, the same rules would apply for any field.
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I don't see the surnames being entered for dashes in the "name review" section. I suspect that the repeated names will be filled in during the family group processing. Since most of the time the dash is not transcribed, I would assume (but don't know) that the dash repeating should be blank since that is how it is transcribed 90+ percent of the time in the name review process. Also, I suspect that entering the name (versus blank) may interfere with the family group process and also wastes time.
I wish someone would definitively answer this as much time is likely wasted changing these dashes to blanks or names.
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Thank you for the instructions on how to get to helpful articles in the Help Center. I didn't realize I could cut through the off-topic information on family search community by going there. I have tried the ? before without finding what I was looking for at the time, but maybe it is sensitive to the specific page one is on. OR maybe I just didn't go down to 'Help Center'. The one time I tried the Help Center page it looked so generic it scared me off. Who knew typing '1950' would find everything!
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