Fall Challenge
Today is the first day of fall; I love to see the changing colors of the leaves! I also welcome the cooler weather, soup season, and the imminent coming of winter. This year we are returning to tradition and the Fall Challenge will start this weekend.
If you haven’t participated in a Challenge before it is a fun way to encourage increased indexing, bring attention to less popular projects and give you a chance to win either an Ancestry subscription or DNA test for your efforts. The top keyer and top reviewer for the selected projects are the winners of the Challenge. We will also have smaller challenges where everyone who keys a certain number of records is entered into a drawing for t-shirts or water bottles.
Challenge 1, Sept 24 & 25 – Alabama, Surname Files, 1901–2005 and Dorset, England, Poor Law Settlement and Removal Records, 1682-1886
Challenge 2, Sept 28 & 29 – Ireland, Famine Relief Commission Papers, 1844-1847 (review only)
Challenge 3, Oct 2 & 3 – Kansas, City and County Census, 1919-1961 (Part 5)
Challenge 4, Oct 7 & 8 – New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Papers, 1788-1856 (Part 1) and New South Wales, Australia, Government Gazettes, 1853-1899 (Part 3)
Challenge 5, Oct 15 & 16 – New South Wales, Australia, Sheriff’s Papers (Part 1) and New Zealand, The New Zealand Gazette, 1860-1894
Challenge 6, Oct 20 & 21 – Ontario, Canada, The Ottawa Journal (Birth, Marriage and Death Notices), 1885-1980 and U.S. Southern Claims Commission, Disallowed and Barred Claims, 1871-1880
Challenge 7, Oct 23 & 24 – USHMM projects
Challenge 8, Oct 27-Nov 2 – Pick your Project
Whether you are also welcoming the coming of fall or not, we hope you will join in the fun and participate in the Challenges.
Happy indexing!
*Terms and Conditions: The Project of the Day Challenges (each a “Challenge”) are administered by Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1300 Traverse Parkway, Lehi, Utah 84043, USA (“Ancestry”). The Challenges are open to contributors resident in USA, UK, Canada and Australia, aged 18 or over, except employees or agents of Ancestry or its group companies. Each Challenge begins at 00:01 MT and ends at 23:59 MT on the relevant day(s). A prize will be awarded to: (1) the contributor who keys the most entries, and (2) the contributor who arbitrates or reviews the most entries, during the period of the Challenge. The prizes will consist of either (i) a 3 month Ancestry membership, or (ii) a DNA test. The prizes cannot be exchanged for money. Contributors may win one prize only. The winners will be notified by e-mail after the end of each Challenge. If a prize winner cannot be contacted within two weeks of being notified, Ancestry reserves the right to award the prize to an alternate winner. Ancestry’s decision is final and binding. No cash alternatives to the prizes will be offered, and the prizes are not transferable. You agree to Ancestry making the name and state of winners available on request. For details of the winners, email worldarchivesproject@ancestry.com.
I have keyed and reviewed many records in the Alabama Surname Files. I have found that the majority of the images in each set are Cover Pages. The set takes quite a bit of time to read the info, only to find that there is no info with a date to create a record. Since the Cover Pages do not count for records keyed or arbitrated, our statistics don’t reflect all the records that we work on. It seems that it would be more fair to have that set by itself than in a competition with another set that probably has more actual records to be created.