Indexing is Addictive

    Before starting my column, I thought I would print out a few family history things for C. All I was going to do was print out what was needed and then begin the column. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the tab marked indexing. 

    I had done some indexing a long time ago when I first started working part time and needed something to fill the hours I wasn't working. Indexing genealogy records means looking at records that have been digitized and typing the information into a form so documents can be easily found. I indexed some birth records from the 1980s. I attempted to index records from Germany. Unfortunately the records were written in German Script, a type of cursive handwriting that is very hard to read. After that I gave up. I also found other things to do.

    This time when I looked at indexing I saw there were other things I could do. One of them was to verify names in documents. The other was to verify full names in documents. The last choice was to verify place names in records.

    Some kind of technology is used to find names in records. Once this is done a person must review the records to make sure the the names are correct and that they are actually names. Records also need to be checked to make sure that the technology found the entire name and identified it correctly.     

    Place names are entered into people's records, but sometimes they don't correspond to the standardized form. They place names include wards, townships, precincts and other information that is not standardized. The records need to be checked and matched for standardized place names.

    None of this seemed very hard so I clicked on checking names. The first batch I got was an handwritten document and was a bit difficult. I finished 20 names. I had planned to stop, but I clicked on the wrong button and got another batch. These were names in some sort of real estate transfer document so it was very easy to check them. Before I knew it I had checked about 100 names.

    I clicked on full names. The batch I got was a handwritten document. I'm not sure if I got all the names correct. I did my best.

    I clicked on place names and did a batch of ten places. One of the was for a person born in Connecticut in 1790. One of my choices was Colonial Connecticut. Fortunately I remembered enough American history to know that this was not the correct choice.

    By the time I got all this done 45 minutes had gone by. I hadn't even realized it. I could have kept checking for hours and not got anything done that needs doing. I quickly logged out before anything else could get my attention. 

 Moral of the story. Anything having to do with indexing is addictive.