Everyone Has Their Favourites


So we all know that there are typically one or two projects that we prefer to key.  This is definitely the case for a few keyers of the most recent projects that are now available to search. 

In the New South Wales, Australia, Returns of the Colony, 1822-1857 project one contributor, from Strathfield, NSW, worked on all but 34 image sets in the project.  (They keyed 692 image sets and arbitrated 775.)  What more can I say than WOW!  Being from the area they had a vested interest in looking over the records which are a collection of the colony’s records in the civil, economic, judicial, police, penal, medical, ecclesiastical, and educational establishments.  Thank you to all 258 contributors who worked on this project!

Also published was the Lübeck, Germany, Census, 1862, the last in a series of 8 Lübeck Census collections that we worked on.  Census records in Germany are rare and this is the first time this particular collection has been digitized and made available online.  Of the 69 contributors who worked on this project again there were a few standout contributors – the top contributor is from the UK and they worked on 363 image sets and the second contributor, from California, worked on 342.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our contributors!!

To celebrate everyone’s favourite projects this week’s Project of the Day Challenge will not focus on one particular project – choose your favourite project.  The Challenge will run this Wednesday, September 14 and we’ll award the overall Top 3 Keyers and Arbitrators/Reviewers.  Winners will have their choice of a DNA test, FTM 2012 or a 3 Month Ancestry subscription.  *Project of the Day Challenge winners are only eligible to win once in a 12 month time frame.

Information and Links

Join the fray by commenting, tracking what others have to say, or linking to it from your blog.

Information
September 12th, 2011
26 Responses
Feeds and Links
Comment Feed
From This Author
Del.icio.us
Digg
Technorati
Categories and Tags
Uncategorized

Other Posts

Write a Comment

Take a moment to comment and tell us what you think. Some basic HTML is allowed for formatting.

Reader Comments

Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Georgine
Posted on:
September 12, 2011 at 7:42 pm

Wow! This contest is a good one — hopefully I’ll be able to participate.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Mary Ellen Park
Posted on:
September 12, 2011 at 10:24 pm

Ipresume this contest deal is for those who have worked on many types of projects who would know which ones are the quickest to do. I am fairly new (just over a month)and have keyed 1550 NYC Immigration Petition Project. this project is the only one I know. No one could possibly do as many as some of those listed, as there are too many vaiables, Hard to read, time to load, etc. I do not know my proficiency rating, it just says Needs Improvement. I am glad to contribute.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
paulmd199
Posted on:
September 12, 2011 at 11:36 pm

@Mary

In absolute terms, the Nz directories and California RR will generate the highest record count with good accuracy rate.

However, if you’re good at any particular project, go for it.

Since I already won this year, I’m ineligible for prizes on this contest. Maybe I’ll go for an extra challenge and arbitrate Biała anyway. Just to be obnoxious. 🙂 (My accuracy rate is exceptional for that project, and ive keyed a couple thousand records of it, no worries)

ps: ask some questions on the Naturalization board and check the wiki. We’ll help you get the accuracy rating up.

http://boards.ancestry.com/wap.naturalizationoriginals/mb.ashx

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Kerrie
Posted on:
September 13, 2011 at 12:15 am

@ Paul

I suggest you arbitrate the Biała Podlaska project as I completed both keying & arbitrating available sets 12 days ago & it’s still sitting at 92%.

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Peggy Druck
Posted on:
September 13, 2011 at 5:24 am

I think it is great about the people who key in the records. I would love to see foreign records translated into English as well. I know it is a great deal of work to do, but for many who have German roots and do not speak a word of German it make it very difficult to know what you are reading.Unless Ancestry could write a program that asks you what language you would like to see the record in?

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Stanton Bloom
Posted on:
September 13, 2011 at 11:45 am

What time-of-day in what time-zone will the contest begin and end? I want to win the DNA test!!!

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
paulmd199
Posted on:
September 13, 2011 at 12:32 pm

@Stanton. They’re near Salt Lake, Utah. Contests typically run 24 hours.

GMT-7

@Kerrie… You’ve been busy then, I see something like 700 sets available in arb.

@Peggy…. If they had translated them already, there would be no need to index.

You really only need to know a couple key words in the language of the record to do an index, though. Google Translate is a great tool as well.

http://translate.google.com/

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
Kerrie
Posted on:
September 13, 2011 at 2:46 pm

@ Peggy

I didn’t know one word of Polish when I started that project even though we have both Polish & German ancestors. As Paul said, Google Translate helps a lot.

@ Paul

You asked for help to get that project done & yes I was busy. 4864 records keyed & 1717 arbitrated with exceptional rating.

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
Liz
Posted on:
September 13, 2011 at 9:03 pm

Everyone has their favorites,mine are English Records. I know I’m not alone. You threw the doggy a bone with the Dorset Crew Lists,they were fantastic, but they didn’t last long. Please Please more.

Thank you

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
Jeannie
Posted on:
September 13, 2011 at 10:58 pm

I confess I love the New Zealand Directories.

I am a history nut, so I found some maps that come from the same time. With felt markers I have followed the migration of these interesting people. I have blue for the fishermen, green for farming, and yellow for the sheep farmers. Then I use a fine point black marker to follow the rails. It has been a most interesting education. And, I’m reading as much as I can about New Zealand. It is fascinating place! Thank you Ancestry for feeding my history ‘tooth’.

Comment Number:
11
Written by:
Jessie
Posted on:
September 14, 2011 at 12:18 pm

@Paul: Wouldn’t it be GMT -6 in Utah now? We’re still on Daylight Savings Time in the US.

And I wish they would add more English projects for keying. Maybe it could be a really big project that takes a few months to complete. I mean, I liked the Dorset Crew Lists project, but it only lasted a few weeks.

Also, more Naturalization Index projects would be appreciated greatly. I loved working on those projects. They were the first projects I keyed and they were really easy and fun.

Also, I keyed a little bit of the California Biographical Index. I think it was the one about artists and musicians, but it also included writers and composers. That project was fun too. When I was keying an image for that project, I found out about a female explorer who wrote articles that were published in National Geographic in the early 1900s. Her name was Harriet Chalmers Adams and she was an American photographer/explorer/writer and she traveled to a lot of unexplored places.

And I especially liked the Cuyahoga County, Ohio Marriage Records project. I had a lot of fun keying and reviewing that one. It had people from all over the world and there was a lot information to be keyed. I wish we could have more projects like that.

Comment Number:
12
Written by:
afechter
Posted on:
September 14, 2011 at 1:38 pm

Liz, Jessie,
We are working on additional UK/English records – be patient as they are coming.

Jeannie,
We would love to see your map!

It is a lot of fun to see the different records – it opens your eyes to the condition of some of the records as well as to the types of records you can use in your own research.

My personal all time favorite is still the Middlesex Criminal Records. I am really “enjoying” the USHMM projects although I do find them a little more emotional and sometimes startling.

Today I am working on Canada Nominal Rolls and Paylists (I grew up in Canada) as well as USHMM – Czech Republic, Selected Jewish Holocaust Records, 1939-1941.

What projects are you working on?

Comment Number:
13
Written by:
jenbowler
Posted on:
September 14, 2011 at 9:12 pm

Working mostly on New York Immigration/Naturalization records at the moment myself. I did “enjoy” working on the Perth Tax Roll records, although they were considerably more challenging; it was like an entertaining puzzle that had to be put together, with some of the wild handwriting and lettering within the pages.
~ Matt

Comment Number:
14
Written by:
Jeannie
Posted on:
September 15, 2011 at 1:22 am

I recently tried my hand at the French voter cards. There are five in a packet. It makes it less time consuming, especially when I’ve been working hard at my job. But some of the writing is hard to read. I work in a medial group of 400+ people, with nearly 50 doctors. I can read their writing, but some of these cards are a true challenge.:)

As for my maps, they aren’t very pretty to look at-but I think they’re beautiful! If I can find a usable scanner I’ll send them along.

Comment Number:
15
Written by:
Georgine
Posted on:
September 16, 2011 at 11:45 pm

When (and where???) do we find out the results of this challenge? It’s very frustrating to spend all that time and not know who won. Reading some of the comments in past blogs, it seems that this non-communications happens regularly — this is not the way to treat your volunteers.

Comment Number:
16
Written by:
Darla_Adams
Posted on:
September 19, 2011 at 9:10 am

And the Winners are…

Excellent job everyone that worked on the Project of the Day last week. In that one day you keyed/arbitrated over 76.5K records.

Our winners for this challenge are:

Review/Arbitration
Ann C – 916 records
Stanton B – 642 records
Margaret L – 551 records

Keying
Georgine H – 3,136 records
Kristina H – 3,102 records
Gina B – 2,464 records

Congratulations!

And, thank you for your patience on these results. Anna and Crista have been representing us at conferences this past week and the ol’ boss is not as nimble in picking up the slack while they are out.

Happy Keying!
Darla