World Archives Project Update


Last week we released another project Live to Ancestry,  Pennsylvania, U.S. Naturalization Originals, 1795-1930.  This is the fourth Naturalization Originals database that is now available to search because of your contributions!  In looking for our immigrant ancestors the Naturalization collections can provide a wealth of information – I know I am waiting for when the New York Originals project is live to search so I can find the records for my husband’s ancestors. 

We  keyed 313,532 records, arbitrated 52,172 records and reviewed 127,214 records.  Wow!  As you can see we are keying a much larger number than what is being reviewed and arbitrated.  We currently have 11 projects that only have arbitration or review image sets available. 

What a better time for a challenge than the season of gratitude and giving!  To celebrate the American Thanksgiving holiday, we are going to have a “Weekend” Challenge.  Let’s see who can Review and Arbitrate the largest number of image sets from these 11 projects from Thursday, November 24 to Sunday, November 27.  

  • Alabama Reference Name Files
  • Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971
  • Dorset Militia Lists 1757-1799
  • Kansas, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Post Records, ca 1878-1945
  • Pennsylvania, U.S. Direct Tax Lists, 1798
  • Subject Index to Correspondence and Case Files of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1903-1952
  • United States, African American Newspapers, 1823-1915
  • USHMM – Palestine, Illegal Immigration from Nazi-Occupied Europe, 1938-1946
  • USHMM – Poland, Jews Displaced from Biała Podlaska to Mie̜dzyrzecz Podlaski, 1942
  • Varese, Lombardia, Italia: Registri di Matrimonio, 1866-1937 (Varese Marriage Registrations)
  • Varese, Lombardia, Italia: Registri di Morte, 1866-1937 (Varese Death Registrations)

    • Don’t worry keyers, next week our challenge will be a keying challenge. 

    Happy reviewing and arbitrating!

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    November 22nd, 2011
    28 Responses
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    Reader Comments

    Comment Number:
    1
    Written by:
    Kate Rimmer
    Posted on:
    November 22, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    Are previous “Project of the Day” winners eligible to enter this or not, please, Anna?

    Comment Number:
    2
    Written by:
    Colleen
    Posted on:
    November 22, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    Why just these 11 projects? ie why not all of them that need Arbitration/Review – eg the backlog for London Poor Law Records. That’s the only one I key and arbitrate/review – so restricting the challenge to the 11 projects above means I won’t/can’t participate.

    Comment Number:
    3
    Written by:
    paulmd199
    Posted on:
    November 22, 2011 at 7:00 pm

    @colleen

    Those are the 11 projects where there are no longer any sets left to be keyed and contain only review and arbitration.

    Comment Number:
    4
    Written by:
    Colleen
    Posted on:
    November 22, 2011 at 7:13 pm

    @paulmd199
    I wouldn’t review/arbitrate a project that I haven’t been keying. So I can’t participate in this challenge (not that I want to anyway – but that’s not the point I’m making).

    Comment Number:
    5
    Written by:
    paulmd199
    Posted on:
    November 22, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    @kate. I see no mention of a prize this round. so i suppose we can….

    Comment Number:
    6
    Written by:
    Sheryl
    Posted on:
    November 22, 2011 at 9:47 pm

    The original title of this project was Pennsylvania, U.S. Naturalization Records – Original Documents, 1795-1972. Why were the documents only up until 1930 released and will the later ones be released soon?

    Comment Number:
    7
    Written by:
    Janet
    Posted on:
    November 23, 2011 at 7:46 am

    I’ve reviewed 3,252 INS and arb’d 297 Ala Ref since Oct 26; you can send my prize to … oh never mind, I do it because I enjoy it.

    Comment Number:
    8
    Written by:
    Rhetta Akamatsu
    Posted on:
    November 23, 2011 at 12:41 pm

    Do you not have to have an “Excellent” rating to review and arbitrate? I thought I read that in the rules. I only have “Good job.”

    Comment Number:
    9
    Written by:
    Janet
    Posted on:
    November 23, 2011 at 1:25 pm

    That’s a very good question. Aren’t arbitrators/reviewers supposed to have a certain rating? If you’re waiving that, aren’t you opening yourself up to a lot of grief, i.e., Alabama Reference Cards?

    Comment Number:
    10
    Written by:
    paulmd199
    Posted on:
    November 23, 2011 at 5:16 pm

    @rhetta and Janet

    in order to get the invite, you have to have Exceptional. However if it drops below that you won’t get an un-invite.

    Comment Number:
    11
    Written by:
    afechter
    Posted on:
    November 24, 2011 at 8:39 am

    Kate,
    Yes, this Challenge is open to everyone.

    Colleen,
    For this Challenge we really wanted to focus on just the projects that have been completely keyed – we will likely have challenges in the future that include the London Poor Law collection.

    And, yes, hopefully reviewers and arbitrators will work on projects they are familiar with.

    Sheryl,
    I am looking into this – I know PA has laws restricting which records are open to the public.

    Rhetta, Janet,
    Yes, in order to become a reviewer or arbitrator contributors need to have met an accuracy threshold. If you drop below that accuracy on a project you are working on you would want to figure out why your accuracy dropped and discontinue working on the project until your accuracy improved. (We don’t have policies in place so this is just a suggestion.)

    Thank you for your comments!

    Comment Number:
    12
    Written by:
    Janet
    Posted on:
    November 25, 2011 at 11:35 am

    Great, now I’m afraid to try new projects, because I don’t want to lose my accuracy rating.

    Comment Number:
    13
    Written by:
    Jeff Zupan
    Posted on:
    November 28, 2011 at 7:15 am

    “…you would want to figure out why your accuracy dropped…”
    Yes, and keyers have been begging for this information for ages, but WAP steadfastly REFUSES to tell us anything.

    Comment Number:
    14
    Written by:
    Janet
    Posted on:
    November 28, 2011 at 10:07 am

    After reviewing/arbitrating, I’m always astounded that keyers make the simplest errors: ALL CAPS; using full stops/periods; etc. Doesn’t anyone read the directions? I really think they should do a sample project before they actually start keying and receive the results of that sample. Maybe that will help.

    Comment Number:
    15
    Written by:
    afechter
    Posted on:
    November 28, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    Yay! Over the weekend 2794 image sets were keyed from the 11 Challenge projects.

    Congratulations to the following top Reviewers and Arbitrators.

    Ann, 786
    Kate, 184
    Gary, 177

    And honorable mention to the additional 53 Challenge contributors and the handful of keyers who worked on returned keying image sets.

    Thank you everyone for helping these projects move along!!

    Comment Number:
    16
    Written by:
    Rhetta Akamatsu
    Posted on:
    November 29, 2011 at 12:37 pm

    Well, I know why my accuracy dropped. I was entering hand-written records with very long Polish names and I could not read them. I’m back to “Good job” and I assure you I don’t make simple mistakes such as all caps or periods, Janet.

    I really feel that you should not encourage people to guess when it can easily destroy their rating.

    Comment Number:
    17
    Written by:
    Jean Anzalone
    Posted on:
    December 6, 2011 at 10:23 pm

    Is there a reason why the CA and soon the NY and PA Naturalization Documents are on Ancestry.com but the MA naturalization documents are on Fold 3?

    Comment Number:
    18
    Written by:
    Judy
    Posted on:
    December 30, 2011 at 6:06 am

    Hello Anna,

    I am new to your World Archive Projects and have started keying some Australian Records.
    Just wanted to ask a quick question about the process of Review and Arbitration, what is the difference between Review and Arbitration in Ancestry.com. It seems like there is an extra step with Keying, Review? and Arbitration? Is Review just what the keyer does when they accept their own data? Thanks for your help.
    Am quite looking forward to keying some uniquely different records.
    Thanks
    Judy