Tired of Indexers not following simple rules.

This has been going on for basically, ever. I've made a handful of posts about this, and how to index them correctly. I've also posted about reading the PI, GIG and Field Helps. Either indexers don't read them, partially read them or just don't care. I haven't seen a beginner batch in quite a while. I think the last one was Tennessee Death Records and some of those were screwed up or even so badly indexed that it was better to send the batch back for reindexing, so new indexers have to go for, at least, Intermediate batches without knowing how to index them. Beginner batches hone an indexer's skills so they came move up to Intermediate. Something like 1,000 Beginner batches should be the mark to where new indexers can access Intermediate batches.

I think they should bring back feedback on batches. That helped me a ton when I first started out, but that was jettisoned when they switched to web indexing full-time. How else are new indexers going to learn?

Dunno about the naturalizations and such, but in the Hungarian project, people generally ignore the instructions because they disagree with them. I'm of two minds on this: on the one hand, I sympathize with wanting to stick the surname in for the child even if it's only recorded for the parents, because I've come up against Search - Record's literal-mindedness — but on the other hand, does it really ever hurt anyone not to put in the sex, if it's not recorded? (You may think Toni must be male and Béla must be female, but you'd be wrong, if you were indexing Hungarian records.)

In the Slovakian project, I return any non-tabular Latin batches, even though I'd be perfectly able to do them, because I can't abide the thought of indexing all of those genitives for the parents' names. I know that if I follow the instructions and index Johannes filius Georgii Szabo with father's given name = Georgii, there will be a clueless researcher somewhere down the line who will see this as proof that his ancestor was called Georgie.

Why are you omitting Poland? We index what it was at the time of the document. If it was Poland Russia on the document, you index Poland Russia. It may be Russia in 2024, but at the time of the document, it was Poland Russia. If Polish was the race, and the color is not there, Polish is indexed. Same with German, Hebrew, Scandinavian, etc.

With the exceptions of Alaska and Ohio Part A, Certificates of Arrivals are not indexed. It literally says that in the PI:

Do not index affidavits of witnesses, certificates of arrival, certificates of loyalty, examination records, or naturalization cards in this project.

Unless you are working An all-records project, nothing from the COA is indexed.

It doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense to you. You have to follow the Field Help instruction.

If the color or race has been abbreviated and you can tell what the abbreviation stands for, choose the race from the drop-down list. If the color or race is not found in the drop-down list, type what you see.

And again, you type what you see with the birthplace. You type what it was at the time of the document, not what it is in 2024. Austria Hungary no longer exists, but when it says Austria Hungary, Bohemia, Poland Russia, you index. It literally says this under the Birthplace Field Help:

Do not change the place-name to its modern name.

You don't get to play fast and loose because you don't think it makes sense. You have to follow the PI, GIG and Field Helps. Doing what you're doing only creates headaches.

Nationality is the state of belonging to a nation or country. American, German, Russian. In the Nats project, 98% of applicants Nationality is the country they were born in.

This batch shows that the applicant's race is English and the nationality as British because she was born in England.

[MQ2V-KP4]

If the race is Dutch, German, etc, it was the race at the time of the document. We now associate Dutch with nationality, however, in the indexing world, it was a race. Nationality is something like British, Russian, Poland, especially when Jewish people applied. The race is Hebrew, the Nationality is Russia, Poland.

We do not apply modern definitions, places, etc. in indexing.

Is there anywhere we can find information on anything we personally are indexing incorrectly? I'm a beginner…I now have 1000 under my belt. But, if I've incorrectly indexed something the same way for the past 1000 times, how am I to know? I have read the instructions over and over to make sure but if we are not corrected, who's to know?

Thanks!

I also wish there was a feedback option available. When I started I was confused by all the information, jargon and dry instructions which needed to be interpreted. Unfortunately there are no projects for beginners and I really wanted to help out with indexing. I was trying to make sense out of project instructions with mixed results. At the beginning I was too shy to post questions, which in hindsight, would be much better thing to do. I know I made a lot of mistakes and I would like to apologise to the reviewers for being a nuisance.

It might be helpful to have something like mock indexing batches which would have to be completed before starting to index the project - short e-learning module with the test at the end - just to make sure beginners have opportunity to gain more confidence and they do not try the patience of reviewers by making the same mistakes all over.

David, can you post your instructions, please? It would be so helpful