Death In Texas

OK, so here's the situation: I'm busy indexing in hopes of being helpful indexing the 1940 US Census when it comes out April 2nd. Every genealogist on planet Earth is excited to have a look and a good ol' search of that record... but... searching can't happen until and unless many volunteers work at indexing the massive project. (See posts below about indexing.)

I indexed some birth records and some other stuff and was looking for a small bundle of items to index, about 10 to 20 records, to keep practicing on. All that I could find for beginners that had handwriting that didn't freak me out were Texas death records. Well, kinda creepy, I thought, but I took a look and ended up indexing a couple of them. Actually really interesting.

These records were for 1954 in San Antonio. Babies to old folks (whatever that was in the mid 1950s). And I just had to read why they died... I love the story stuff. Were they married, where were they born? Were they a "Jr." or was the mother or father's name known or unknown? It all started to come a bit together to frame a tiny picture of them. Fascinating, really, how much you can get from one death certificate.

So that's why we index: to fill in missing bits for those descendants out there looking for more information to better complete the picture of their ancestor. Yeah, I like indexing.

Photo of the day from my Archive:

My Aunt Dot, Dorothy Williams Conrad,

ready for her prom, 1938.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/03/death-in-texas.html

Houskeeping

1.) It's the first of the month and it's Back-up My Files Day! Back-up of files is automatically done by Carbonite so I don't have to think about it. It costs about $60 a year or $5 a month if I did the math correctly... and that can be a problem for me;) Well worth it. Had a total system crash early this year and was sure happy that Carbonite was at work. Recovered everything!

2.) I'm indexing! Wooo for me! By yesterday afternoon was so into it that I started feeling like I had a job;) Time to take a break. And that's the beauty part: you can just stop in the middle of a line and walk away. When you come back it remembers where you were and has backed up all your work. It's a beautifully written program.

Wish I has as little trouble making my way around the FamilySearch site. Maybe I need to drive on over to the Center and get someone to give me another tour. I'm missing something, for sure.

Picture of the day from my file:

Mom, 1919.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/03/houskeeping.html 

1940 US Census Indexing: I Took The Plunge!

After seeing all the hoopla about volunteering to index the upcoming release of the 1940 US Census, I threw my insecurities out the window and signed up to go a-indexing! It took about ten minutes total to download the software app, watch the video, sign in to my FamilySearch account and give it a whirl. It's kinda fun.

My hesitation was that I'm still a newbie and have been known to screw up stuff now and again... OK, regularly. But all the big kids were singing its praises so I jumped on the bandwagon. (Too many metaphors there, but you know what I mean;)

The video is so simple and straightforward, even I could understand it! And then they give you a test batch to try out. If you make a mistake or get confused they help you.

I'm working on some birth records now for somewhere in Texas and it's so very moving to see these records and know that my keystrokes could lead to someone finding their ancestor. OK, I'm hooked.

Plus, I get to pick from a list of records I want to index. That's really nice. I took a look at some handwriting on records from the War of 1812 and I'm not there yet. But Texas births... I'm all over that!

It comes to you in little batches so I don't feel like I've got this gigantic job to to. It's just filler work for me. Do a couple every now and then. Writing this blog post is taking longer than the batch I just finished.

Yeah, I can do this indexing thing... and I bet you can too. To sign up to index the 1940 US Census, go to http://the1940census.com/

And to get all warmed up and try your hand at indexing, go to http://the1940census.com/getting-started/

Photo of the Day from my archive:

My GF, John Lee Kelly (1892 - 1969) and his mother,

Christiana Eckhart Kelly (1861 - 1932)

ca. 1910.

The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/02/1940-us-census-indexing-i-took-plunge.html