Let The Challenge Begin
Join us this summer as we put our hands together to key 8 million records between June 1st and August 31st. We’re calling it the World Record Challenge.
As always, the records you key will be made available to the public for free. But this summer, your contribution will go even further, as Ancestry.com matches the records you key with additional free collections.
You can track our progress towards 8 million records on our Facebook page. We will update it daily with the current record count. And remember, both record keying and record arbitration count towards the total.
Your involvement will also give you a say in upcoming collections available for keying. In fact, after every 100 records you submit during the World Record Challenge you’ll get to vote for the collection you want to take on next. Are you interested in records from England, Australia or the United States? Do you want to key censuses, parish registers or convict records? Check out these sample images and brief descriptions of each collection and then let us know.
You will find the voting feature in the bottom half of the Select Image Set screen in the Keying Tool. Here you can cast your vote and track which collections are in the lead. Vote after every 100 records submitted or accumulate votes and cast them all for one collection.
In addition to the benefits already listed, we will be giving away fun prizes every week throughout the summer so be sure to check back here regularly to discover the “challenge of the week.”
Up first, which contributor can key (and/or arbitrate) the MOST number of records this week? We’ll announce the winner next Monday morning.
We hope you’ll join us.
So – flex your fingers – and let’s get keying!
This comment is for those who are worried that names are incorrectly transcribed on census indexes. Sometimes the name is only distinguishable by someone related to the individual listed. In that case, we can make a suggested correction- on the left side of the census listing (not the image), there is link to “Add alternate information” (including line number, house number, street name, name, estimated birth year, birth place, Father’s birth place and Mother’s birth place). Here you can give the correct spelling, and reasons why you know this.
These corrections are reviewed by Ancestry, and when accepted the alternate information is included in the index. I have made corrections several times for people who were otherwise very difficult to find on the index.