{"id":5908,"date":"2016-07-20T06:28:04","date_gmt":"2016-07-20T10:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5908"},"modified":"2016-08-10T05:50:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-10T09:50:07","slug":"my-bit-for-genealogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5908","title":{"rendered":"My Bit for Genealogy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"typewriter,

photo: Steve Depolo, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

What makes a set of records helpful to people researching their families? Having it digitized for search. And, how does that happen? Not easily. We forget that up until about the 1960s many public records were hand-written. \u00a0Before the typewriter was invented (1860), all records were written completely by hand. As a mystery writer, I find these historic documents\u2014and their tantalizing glimpses of the-story-behind-the-story\u2014fascinating!<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, early county clerks were not selected based on the legibility of their handwriting. Add to that possible errors and idiosyncrasies in spelling, particularly of names, where parental creativity sometimes trumps convention (note the sly RNC reference; Freud at work). These make deciphering documents a challenge requiring Sherlock Holmes\u2019s extra-large magnifier.<\/p>\n

A 72-hour Challenge<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To get some help with the massive task of digitizing, FamilySearch.com sponsored a three-day event last weekend, in which volunteers from around the world examined original records and entered data into pre-designed forms. In fact, some 116,475 people indexed over 10 million records in those three days!<\/p>\n

I entered data extracted from hundreds of handwritten Kentucky marriage records from the 1930s and 1940s, as well as some from the 1880s\u2014before the clerks used forms. Also English probate records for loads of people, last name Cox. Also 1920 census pages for Montreal.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I learned:<\/p>\n