Brick Wall Ancestor Got You Down? Try Some Transcribing and Indexing

A lot of people have more time for genealogy these days. Us genealogists are handling the new measures better than most, because we have no problem staying in and losing hours in pursuit of our ancestors. My job is considered essential, so I still get up and go to work every day. However, I'm still getting in more research time than normal due to physical distancing.

The downside to everything is that the Archives and Libraries are closed. But thanks to the digital age we live in, there is a TON of online resources for us to further our research. But what to do when that Brick Wall Ancestor starts making you tear your hair out? Why not take a frustration break and do some transcribing, indexing and/or tagging of photos. Several projects have started up over the last few weeks. These projects are gifts that keep on giving.

1. It helps the genealogy community as a whole. Someone years from now is going to be finding that record or photo and do a happy dance. 
2. By stepping away from your own research and focusing elsewhere, you'll have a clearer head when you go back to it. 
3. You get to hone your skills at deciphering handwriting.
4. You might stumble onto a record or photo that is applicable to your own research

So, this week, I'm going to provide links to projects. Now, I usually try and focus on Canadian research in my blog. But in the interest of genealogy as a whole, I'm going to include projects outside of Canada as well. 

https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/

Family Search

These guys have always got some projects going on. Just go to their Indexing page to get started. They have projects from all over the world in many different languages. A couple relating to Canadian research are:

• Canada, Nova Scotia—Church Records, 1864–1877 [Part B]
• US—Aliens Pre-Examined in Canada and Mexico, 1906–1954

Ancestry

The World Indexing Project by Ancestry is another global initiative. You will have to download the keying tool in order to participate. Each record set shows the language and difficulty level. No Canadian projects right now, but they have:

• United Kingdom-4
• Germany- 2
• Australia- 2
• Ukraine- 1
• Italy - 1

https://co-lab.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng

Library and Archives Canada

Co-Lab is the LAC's central hub for their projects. They have divided their "challenges" into different categories: transcription, translation, tagging, and description. There are 13 challenges on the go right now, including:

• Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
• Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War
• Women lightkeepers, heroes by the sea

Here are some other projects I've found out about

Canada

• The Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings needs helps transcribing the 1871 assessment roles for the area townships.
• The Nova Scotia Archives has one project on the go right now on their Transcribe page.  Commissioner of Public Records - Refugee Negroes details Black immigration and settlement from 1783 to 1838.

United States

• The Newberry Library in Chicago has letters and diaries needing transcribing that deal with 19th and early 20th century life in the Midwest
• The New York Public Library has a few projects on the go. A really fascinating one is the NYPL Community Oral History Project. Volunteers are needed to help with the transcribing of oral histories about life in New York City.
• The Smithsonian always has projects on the go.Check out their Digital Volunteers page regularly to see what they have. Right now, they have 18 projects in progress. 
• The U.S. National Archives is another site with multiple projects on the go. I counted at least 20 projects on their Citizen Achivist page. They have everything from the beginner level to expert level
• The Library of Congress has 16 "campaigns" going on right now. Each campaign is made up of smaller projects.

And Elsewhere...

• University College London has huge project going on transcribing the writings of philosopher Jeremy Bentham
• Free UK Genealogy is a huge crowd sourcing project for UK BMDs and Census records
• Gould Genealogy made a post in February of 2019 of transcription projects in Australia. It's a year old but will give yo a good starting point in finding records to transcribe there.
• The UK National Archives have several projects that don't require on site access
• French site Geneanet has lots of indexing projects
• The NIOD in the Netherlands are looking for people to help transcribe WWII diaries

Look Locally

If you want a project that coincides with your own research interests, try contacting the local Institution or Society of your area of research. They are always looking for volunteers. I checked on Genealogical Society web pages across Canada, and almost all had a notice looking for transcribing/indexing volunteers. In the current COVID world, some of these projects could be on hiatus. However, if the material can be done from your home, then I'm sure they would be glad to have you on board. Some require you to be a member. Now is as good a time as any to try out a membership and see what they're about.

If you know of any transcription/indexing projects let us know in the comments. 

Hone Your Skills With Transcribing and Indexing

One of the most frustrating aspects of genealogy is handwriting. In a perfect world, all the documents we come across would have been written in a neat legible hand. In reality, we are invariably going to come across a document where the handwriting looks like a snake fell in the ink pot and slithered drunkenly across the page. It's even more of a headache when they document you're looking at is not in your spoken language, or uses archaic terms and words not in existence anymore. 

One really excellent way to get yourself familiar with handwriting is to give a go at transcribing and indexing. It's also a good way to give back to the genealogy community. These records don't index themselves.

Transcribing is becoming a lost art. Once upon a time, the only way you could take home a copy of a record was to write it out by hand. Nowadays, you can save microfilm images to a USB, and depending on the archive, take a picture of a document. While this is quicker and handier, you should still give a go at transcribing. I'm the first one to admit that when I fine a new document, my excitement doesn't let me pick up all the details when I read through it. Transcribing the document word for word forces you to slow down and look at everything the document is saying. 

Indexing is another great way to get familiar with handwriting. Take census records for example. There's set columns, so you know what information is going to be in each one. You can train yourself to look at the handwriting to make out words. How did the writer form the letters? Looking at the entries above and below can help you decipher whether that occupation is carter or cashier. 

Indexing and / or transcribing a record set of a research area you're interested in can be invaluable. The obvious bonus is you might find your ancestors. An added bonus though is that the documents will give you sense of the community your ancestor lived in, and the families there. You'll get to know how they talked, and what their lives were like. This can be true of not only census, civil registration and parish registers. Transcribing a diary of a local person can tell you about everyday life in the community. Indexing newspapers also gives insight into the events and social activities that shaped how your ancestors' saw the world. 

There are some great Canadian opportunities right now to join in indexing and transcribing:

• The one everyone is talking about right now is the indexing on Family Search of the 1926 Census of the Prairie Provinces. We have another 5 years to wait until the next Canada wide 1931 Census, but this is still a great record set for those with ancestors in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. You can find the link to the project here. 

• Library and Archives Canada has a great program called Co-Lab, where you can help index or  transcribe documents. They also have photo collections that need descriptions and tagging. The main page of Co-Lab challenges is here.

• The Nova Scotia Archives had started last year a crowd sourcing program called Transcribe. There is nothing posted in the way of projects that I could see right now, but the link to their page is here.

• The BC Archives is also looking for transcription volunteers. ou can see what projects are going on right now here.

• Ancestry's World Archives Project always has projects on the go. Check out the main page here.

• Contact your local genealogy or historical society. I can guarantee that if you call and say you would like to volunteer your time indexing and transcribing records, they'll jump to say yes. Some records will require you to spend some time at the society, but you might also be able to do things at home as well. Preparing for this blog post, I came across many local museums and archives' websites across the country asking for volunteers.

• Automated Genealogy is a volunteer website transcribing census records. They've branched out trying to index other record sets to link to the census records. You can see more details here.

• The New England Historic Genealogical Society has many volunteer indexing and transcribing opportunities. Don't be fooled by their name. They have many Canadian based items in their holdings. Their page on volunteering is here.

Give it a try. You don't need to block off huge amounts of time. Even just half an hour a week can make a huge difference in these projects. It's a win/win situation for everyone. The organizations get the help they need, and you get to hone your handwriting skills.