------------------------------------------------------------------ FORWARDED MESSAGE - Orig: 26-Jan-99 8:58 Subject: The abbreviation WPA as used in the MVGI ------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Joe Bosserman <joe.boss@erinet.com> After using the Miami Valley Genealogy Index on 25 Jan 1999 William A. Harrison <mrbil1@juno.com> ask: what do the letters WPA stand for in the MVGI. I replied with it's meaning, which prompted his next question: > >What is the nature of the 1930's WPA federal project? Where can >that material be reviewed? Here is (in part) the answer That is a good question Bill. I will try to outline that for you by writing an explanation and placing it on the instruction page that goes along with the MVGI <Miami Valley Genealoy Index> Following is the start of a draft of that explanation: WPA = Work Project Administration One of the "sources" used in The Miami Valley Genealogy Index is "WPA." It is most often used in the MVGI to indicate Miami County Ohio Marriage records before 1850. The WPA was a federal project during early 1930s. It was a Federal Funded Progran that was started in order to create jobs during Great the Depration of the early 1930s and help put people back to work. One of the many jobs created by the WPA was jobs to help index court house records in many counties across the country. Miami County Ohio had some of this federal help. In the early 1930s WPA workers started indexing Miami County Ohio Marriages from the beginning of records in Miami County up until around 1860. Their work was typed and indexed and for the next fifty years (the only 3 copies of this index) was the source that most hobby genealogies used for their Miami County research. (one copy was/is in the Miami County Recorder's Office, one copy in the Troy Historical Society's Archives, and the third copy in the Local History Room of the Flesh Public Libery in Piqua.) Unfortuanly the WPA workers were not skilled in reading the old script from the original Miami County Marriage Books which are located in the Probate Court. Often such errors as mistaking the old script letter "s" as a letter "p" and many other such common errors that are still made by the newer researchers. For an example, David Moss became David Mopp, and was indexed as such. Other such errors were even worse, such as the capital letter "T" was misread as "L" and indexed as such, thus Teeter became Leeder and indexed as such, etc, etc. This confusion goes on and on in the old WPA typed Miami County Marriage Index. In 1988 I (Joe Bosserman) bought my first computer and started to enter these old WPA marriage records into a computer format. How hard it was for me to enter my grandpa's name as David Boperman (Bosserman). What to do? was my question! Corrections should be made so I did, but only when I was absolutely sure. After entering most of the old WPA typed Miami County Marriages into a computer format (using dBase3) I obtained a microfilm viewer and film of early Miami County Marriages with intentions of continuing what the WPA had started fifty years before. I began with 1854 (Marriage Book 4) and since that time have entered most of the Miami County Marriages up to around 1900. When I entered the Miami County Marriages into the Miami Valley Genealogy Index, I distinguished the older WPA work from my own by either using the letters WPA, or the Marriage License number. First draft...by Joseph H. Bosserman ==== OHMIAMI Mailing List ==== !^NavFont02F0B59000FNGHHGF7NHF6HR5AE809 Maggie's World of Courthouse Dust & Genealogy Fever http://www.infinet.com/~dzimmerm/mindex.html *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* God Put Me On Earth to Accomplish a Certain Number of Things. Right Now I am so far behind, I will never die. --- Unknown *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with good health, good friends, and more than enough good luck. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*