What Names Should I Key?

  • Posted by
  • June 3, 2016

We recently added something new to the keying instructions for each *newly released* project called “What Names Should I Key?” If you have not run across one yet, take a look at an example below:

What Names Should I Key? Government gazettes are like a newspaper with articles, except the articles deal with notices of various kinds put out by the government rather than interesting current events. For example, an article may contain a table of immigrant names, a notice about a crime that was committed, a list of individuals that received government appointments, or a land transaction. Every person mentioned in an article should be keyed on their own record excluding the names of those who authored the articles (typically found at the end or bottom of an article). These authors names will appear multiple times. We will also not usually key the names of Mayors, Governors, etc., unless the article is specifically about them.

That’s it! Just a short paragraph letting you know which names should be keyed. So why are we pointing this out?

1st: So you know it’s there and use it.

2nd: So you can tell us what you think! Please share your thoughts on this new feature in the comments section.

Happy Keying!

 

 

 

 

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June 3rd, 2016
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Reader Comments

Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Kate Rimmer
Posted on:
June 3, 2016 at 1:20 pm

Great idea, but it is very confusing to read that your example comes from “South Australia, Australia, Passenger Lists, 1853:” since it refers to government gazettes. I think the project page that you have taken it from is a “work in progress”, for a project which has not yet been released, and some of the sections have been copied from other project pages and not yet updated to reflect the requirements of the project that it is for.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
seanbmc
Posted on:
June 3, 2016 at 1:24 pm

Good point:) I have updated the post.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Gillian Sicotte
Posted on:
June 3, 2016 at 1:37 pm

Very helpful! This is something I struggle with in projects, and it will be so nice to have this extra help!

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Andrew Gabb
Posted on:
June 3, 2016 at 6:12 pm

Much needed, because it not only says what, but why.
Regarding keying of ‘Mayors, Governors, etc.’, I think this could be expanded to be more specific to the project, and more explicit in meaning. The ‘Mayors, Governors, etc.’ are usually in gazettes as the persons authorising something or other (including the insertion of the article).
I’d also like to see more about specific types of articles, to be updated as more are found. (I know there are a large number of article types in gazettes.)

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Mary Ann Bittle
Posted on:
June 6, 2016 at 11:54 am

This will be extremely helpful to add to the Southern Claims Commission project, too! I am constantly running across keyers that have keyed witnesses to signatures either instead of or with witnesses to the claims (which is a no-no), so this should cut down on those errors!

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Sherry
Posted on:
June 17, 2016 at 4:59 am

Type your comment here. World Project valuable data in Alabama sets being lost because you require birth or death what a funeral and no survivors names, crucial stuff when searching a tree. I have a birth announcement now and am only indexing child’s name what if ancestor only knows a parents name? no where to put it. No wonder I can never find the information I seek. Forms need to be adjusted to work with Gazetts vital information IS BEING LOST.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
Jules McDonald
Posted on:
June 20, 2016 at 4:37 am

NSW colonial sec 1788-1856.
We are told to key the margin name.
I often find that the Name the transaction applies to at the top of the page, and the margin name appears to be the surveyor who wrote the description of the land.