There are now four new projects to key!
Earlier today we released four new projects – Scioto County, Ohio, Marriage Records, 1803-1860, Bartholomew County, Indiana, Birth Records Index, 1883-1920, Montgomery County, Indiana, Index to Birth Records, 1882-1920 and Ireland, Lord Viscount Morpeth’s Testimonial Roll, 1841.
The first three projects listed are small, typewritten collections. These are collections that are available on Ancestry currently that we are indexing again to create a more accurate index that what is currently available.
The last project listed, Ireland, Lord Viscount Morpeth’s Testimonial Roll, 1841, is an interesting collection. Lord Viscount Morpeth was the Chief Secretary of Ireland and this roll, 412 meters or 1351 feet, is comprised of many sheets of paper put together with signatures from men in all of the counties of Ireland. Because the signatures are from the men themselves the handwriting varies from name to name and it can be a bit challenging. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the records and the man and hope you enjoy keying them!
If you have any questions about these project please post them on the Discussion pages of the wiki articles or on the New Project Q & A message board. Happy keying!
This comment doesn’t apply to just one particular project, so I will say it here.
The instructions for keying father’s name on some of these new projects worry me. If the father’s given name is the same as the child’s surname, we are told to assume it is actually the father’s surname instead of his given name because it is unlikely that his name was something like Jones Jones. There are plenty of people called Jones Jones on ancestry and other sites, and certainly when you look at surnames which are taken from first names, there are absolutely loads of people with names such as Thomas Thomas, Friedrich Friedrich, and so on.
It also worries me that we are told to take the father’s surname from the child’s surname, as there is no instruction (as far as I can see) which covers the situation where no given name is shown for the father and the child has the mother’s surname (i.e. parents not married to each other, father’s name was not registered). Following the instructions as they are now, we would still key the child’s surname into the father’s surname field in this situation although this would most likely be inaccurate.