By
my third week working at the Society of Genealogists, I felt like everything
was going right for me. I knew everyone by name, I knew who I could ask for
help if I had any questions, and I knew who told the best stories. My work week
was quite similar to my second week: I was able to simultaneously work on two
Crisp Collections, marriage licenses and apprenticeship indentures. I was a
little worried that I would not finish the collections by the time I finished
my internship, but I have high hopes that I will be able to at least finish the
apprenticeship indentures.
The collection of apprenticeship
indentures gradually became more difficult to transcribe. First, after the
first volume, the documents were ordered in alphabetical order by the name of
the apprentice. This made it difficult to transcribe because each document was
written at a different time; the formats were then different, and the
information became more difficult to extract. I also noticed that the index had
few mistakes in the extractions, which suggested to me that the index was
created many years ago, because a lot of the documents are lower quality and
have deteriorated over time. I would be able to make out maybe the first letter
of a name, and I would have to use the index to find what I thought was the
correct entry by the other information found in the document.
Overall, I found that on an average
day I was able to edit the images, create an index, and upload three volumes of
apprenticeship indentures and two volumes of marriage licenses, as long as
there were no issues with image quality.
During my two days working with the
resident genealogist, Else, I was able to create a few more Hints and Tips
documents that will be put on the Society of Genealogists’ website when I
arrive back from my week researching at the London Metropolitan Archives. First
I created a tutorial on how to search FamilySearch in its new format. I created
it in a way that it will not get outdated for a while, so the Society of
Genealogists will be able to use it for some time. Second, I created a tutorial
on how to get the best results from the IGI, which includes how to find the IGI
on FamilySearch, how to use Batch Numbers, and how to find the original
records. Lastly, I created a tutorial on how to download PCC Wills from the
National Archives website. Else and I decided on the last two Hints and Tips
that I will create: Writing a Genealogical Report, and Analyzing Your Research:
The Big Picture.
On Friday, a class group that took
online classes from the Society of Genealogists came in for a graduation tour.
They stopped by my station and I gave them a tour of what the volunteers do at
the Society, because I was the only volunteer there that day! I showed them a
digital record, my index, and how it all comes together. Tim was very impressed
with the way I was able to tell the visitors all of the information.
Brian and I also had a great
weekend. We first went to the Lion King on Friday! The next day, we went to
Oxford on a bus aptly named ‘Oxford Tube.’ Oxford was a wonderful place. It
felt much less modern than London, which I personally liked a lot more. We
visited the Bodleian Library and went through an exhibit detailing the works of
J.R.R. Tolkien. We visited a few places near Oxford University, such as Oxford
Christ Church, and a few of the colleges. We were also able to take a tour in
Oxford Castle, which was built around 960AD. On Sunday, we were able to go see
an organ recital at Westminster Abbey. It was great that we didn’t have to pay
to get in, and we were uplifted with beautiful organ music.
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