Indexing Fun

Prepping for the 1940 US Census, I had a few snags while setting up the indexing program. I’ve had a chance to get back to it and try it out.

First of all, when setting up, the program crashed on me a few times. I haven’t seen that again, so that’s an improvement. Sometimes it’s another program running that conflicts and causes problems, and sometimes it’s just Windows.

Last time, I had some trouble with the View Sample in the Download Batch screen. This time, I was able to see a sample, although it didn’t quite match what I indexed. I was shown a World War II draft registration card but the project was for World War I draft registration. I downloaded and indexed a batch, which took me about 30 minutes.

The next batch I tried, I thought I clicked to view the sample again, but I never saw a sample. I probably clicked a couple times and hit the OK button once and it downloaded the batch. This time, I had ten images of marriage records, two records to each image. Again, this batch took me around 30 minutes or just a bit more.

The highlighting was far off on the draft registrations and non-existent for the marriage records. I did like that part about the census, but that’s a more uniform image with a lot more information condensed, so you need it more to keep track of where you are.

I did have a delay downloading at least one of the batches, but it was just a slow download. I’m also having all kinds of connectivity issues today, so it could be my own ISP.

Prior to this, I was able to add UJGS as my group, because I submit the society to the program. I still don’t know what that will tell me. I can’t find anywhere to look for more information. I assume it should give indexing statistics and a list of who is signed up for the group.

I just hope that the 1940 US Census pages I’m given are as readable as today’s records were.

The URL of this blog post is http://idogenealogy.com/blog/2012/03/29/indexing-fun/.

2 thoughts on “Indexing Fun”

  1. Hello, Banai,

    It’s good to know that even someone with your indexing experience is having problems. Your blog posts and tweets inspired me to sign up as an indexing volunteer but it sure is a frustrating process. I managed to download the indexing software but have made no more progress.

    Since I’ve never indexed before I really need the tutorials but can’t get them to work… tried different browsers and had the site freeze and/or crash. The single sample page I somehow pulled up was so small I couldn’t read a thing.

    I’ll keep trying – maybe it will get better once the opening day hoopla is past?

    Annie in Austin

    1. Annie,

      The images can be zoomed in near the top left. Maybe it’s just zooming out for you by default.

      I have read other messages from people about indexing going down at times. I hope they’re getting ready for the onslaught next week, but it might be going down _because_ people are getting ready for it and their servers won’t be prepared. Just like the 1930 census, this one might be best accessed in the middle of the night at the beginning.

      I’m glad I helped convince you to index! :-)

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