Obituaries Many images will need to be rotated. There will be many duplicate documents in these projects. Please note the explanation of what constitutes a duplicate document. Many documents may pertain to the same individual, but they may not be exact photographic duplicates. These need to be indexed as stand-alone documents. Sometimes an obituary or death notice was too large to photograph in one image; you will need to combine information from multiple images when they show a continuation of the same document. To avoid missing information that should be indexed, you need to read documents carefully. Index only those individuals whose relationship to the deceased is included in the drop-down box. If a descriptive term was added to the main relationship term, such as stepson or son-in-law, index the main term only.
Many of the images will need to be rotated. Use this icon to rotate the images. Please note that when you rotate one image in a batch, all the images in the batch are rotated. So after you index the image, you will likely need to rotate subsequent images back to their original orientation.
This document records a birthplace, but the next document does not. These are two distinct documents on different images that are about the same person. Each should be indexed with the information included in the document. Neither should be marked as a duplicate image.
This document was split between two images. The second image has a date to be indexed, which would be indexed with the information on the previous image. The second image would then be marked as a No Extractable Data Image. Documents viewed the secondary viewer cannot be rotated.
DO NOT INDEX FROM THIS WINDOW Index the date from the secondary window. Note this document cannot be rotated.
The first step when starting to index a batch is to identify the image type, following the instructions in the field help.
The next thing to do is to select the record type. Are you entering a record for the deceased or for a relative of the deceased?
This document would have four records indexed from it: R T Abbey (who was the deceased) Age: 75 Death Month: Nov Death Day: 9 Death Year: 1937 Death Town or City: Greenville Name of the Newspaper: Grand Rapids Press Index the name of the deceased first, and then index the names of additional individuals in the order they appear in the document. Mrs Lottie May Moore Daughter Jason Son Benjamin Son Do not index a surname for an individual unless one was recorded in the document. When only a two-digit year was recorded, you can often determine the century from other information on the document or from the year span of the project.
This document contains the names of 11 people: Mrs Alice H Abbgy Age: 80 Death Month: <Blank> Death Day: <Blank> Death Year: <Blank> Death Town or City: (tab past) Name of the Newspaper: (tab past) Daher Husband Ernest Son Nicholas Son Daniel Son Russell Son Juliet Abbgy Daughter Joseph Yared Brother Michael Yared Brother Mrs Bessie Cook Sister Mrs Mary Salhaney Sister
Six records would be indexed from this document: Albert Abbgy Age: 79 Death Month: Jun Death Day: 20 Death Year: 1974 Death Town or City: (tab past) Name of the Newspaper: Grand Rapids Press Susan Wife Sam Son Mrs Mary Wilson Daughter Richard Son Mrs Eleanor Walters Daughter Do not index names of people who are not related to the deceased. Do not create additional records for individuals unless they were actually mentioned in the obituary. For example, this obituary lists Mrs Ben (Mary) Wilson as a surviving daughter; you would not index a record for Ben Wilson himself, unless he was actually mentioned, as in, Mr and Mrs Ben Wilson or Ben and Mary Wilson.
For this document, the following people would be indexed according to how their relationship to the deceased was recorded in the obituary: Mrs Eva Stalec Razmus John Stalec Child Jayne Stalec Child Anthony Nikodemski Child Estelle Nikodemski Child Joseph Stalec Child Betty Stalec Child Bert Ignasiak Child Katharine Ignasiak Child Stanley Razmus Child Bernice Razmus Child Harry Bracewell Child Esther Bracewell Child Henry Dehen Child Josephine Dehen Child Jack Wolbers Child Helen Wolbers Child Mrs Kathryn Czerwien Sister Mrs Catherine Razmus Sister In indexing the relationship field, do not assume a gender unless one was clearly indicated in the obituary, either directly or with pronouns or titles or terms. Note that this sister-in-law would be indexed as Sister in the relationship field.
1 2 j This image contains obituaries for two deceased persons. First, index the information in the obituary on the left. Then index the information in the obituary on the right, the one for Miss Clarissa Ketchum. The records from both obituaries will be part of the set of records for this image. See the next pages for how to index this image.
When indexing the names of parents, if two parents were listed, you can assume that the first parent listed was the father and the second one was the mother unless other evidence in the record indicates otherwise.
Next, index the document on the right side of the image.
This document states that Frederick D. Ketchum is a native of Michigan. Michigan would be indexed in the Birth State or Country field.
On this document, the maiden name of James s wife is given. Generally when you see a female name recorded this way, the name in parenthesis was the maiden name. For this document, the name would be indexed as: Given Names: Kay Surname: Tuttle Chesnut The mother-in-law, Gertrude Tuttle, would be indexed with the relationship Mother. Both a stepfather and a biological father were recorded in the document. Index both of them with the relationship Father. Stepsiblings and half brothers or sisters are indexed as biological siblings. Index the relationship term that was written in the obituary. If a descriptive term was added, such as stepson, index the main term only. The nieces and nephews would not be indexed.
No surnames would be indexed for sons William and Lawrence. Brothers Fred, Louis, and William would all be indexed with the surname of Daniels.
Note the nickname. This name would be indexed as follows: Given Names: Raymond F Or Slim Surname: Chesser
When a name was written in various ways in the same document, index all variations, with Or between the variations. For this document, the name would be indexed as: Given Names: Augustus Francis Surname: Child Or Childs You should index the most complete version of a name. So you should not use Or in indexing the given names because Augustus Francis is a more complete version of A F, not a variation of it.
Death place and date Name of newspaper Index the names in the order you would read a newspaper. The names would be indexed in this order: Arden W Chester as the deceased and then Sandra as Daughter (based on the w/o, or wife of, indication in the obituary) and Ronald Daniels as Son. The same pattern would be followed on down the list, but Connie Holmes, Bonnie Ealy, and Timothy Chester would all be indexed as Child because no gender is otherwise indicated. Walter Chester, Donald Chester, and the others in the next list on the left would all be indexed as Sibling. Then, in the column on the right, Milo Chester would be indexed as Father, Lindia Stover as Mother, and Betty Jane Clark as Wife.
For this document, the parents would be indexed in the following manner:
This document would be indexed as: Given Names: Frances Surname: Clegg Death Month: Oct Death Day: 18 Death Year: 1958 Name of the Newspaper: Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum William Edgar Clegg would not be indexed from this document because no relationship was listed.
Note: Sometimes the lead word refers to a surname, other times to a locale. In the document above, Allegan would be indexed in the Death Town or City field.
Many times obituaries were attached to index cards that do not relate to the obituary. Please index only the information contained in the obituary, and disregard the other information.