We now have 7 volunteers for the Census Project! Keep in mind that this is not a quick, easy project. It's going to be tedious and in order for it to work, we'll need highly accurate transcriptions of the data. If this sounds like something you'd like to do, great! If not, there will always be another project coming up soon. STEP 1 - ASSIGN YOURSELF A STATE a. Go to the 1830 Census Extracts page http://wiki.whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/1830. You can quickly get to this page by going to the WRG website and entering "1830" in the search box. b. Pick a state and click on it to view that page. c. Click on the "edit this page" tab at the top. d. On the line that says "Current Transcriber: none", change "none" to your name, then click on the "Save page" button. This will make sure that two people don't try to work on the same state at the same time. If you decide not to continue working on a state, just remove your name and save the page again. STEP 2 - GATHER THE LIST a. Go to ancestry.com (or another census source) and do a search for the surname Whitney for the location you have chosen to work on. b. Copy that list into a text file, in the following format: U.S. Census, South Carolina, Barnwell County, page 132 Rachel Whitney U.S. Census, South Carolina, Charleston County, Charleston Ward 3, page 67 Archibald Whitney U.S. Census, South Carolina, Charleston County, Charleston Ward 3, page 47 Mary Whitney c. Note that for consistency, we'd like the locations in this format. d. The leading single spaces are important. e. You'll need to click the "View Record" link to get the page numbers from Ancestry. f. The order of the list should stay as Ancestry displays it - alphabetical by county, and within a county by the town name. g. Do another search for "Whitny" and if any are found, manually add them to your list. STEP 3 - EXTRACT THE RECORDS a. For each Whitney on your list, view the original record and carefully extract the information into your list. Here is an example: U.S. Census, South Carolina, Barnwell County, page 132 Rachel Whitney 0000100000000-0012000100000-100000-100000-000000-000000-7 b. Put a 0 for any blank column. c. If you have a column that has the number 10 or higher, surround the number in parentheses, like this: 000(10)10001..... d. Be very careful that you get the exact number of 0's STEP 4 - POST YOUR RESULTS Once you've extracted a few and are ready to save them (done for now, etc.), do the following: a. Go to the 1830 Census Extracts page http://wiki.whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/1830. You can quickly get to this page by going to the WRG website and entering "1830" in the search box. b. Click on the state you assigned yourself to view that page. c. Click on the "edit this page" tab at the top. d. Paste in your extracted records at the bottom. e. Select the "Save page" button to save. You are welcome to type your extractions directly onto your page, or use another tool such as notepad and then paste it into the website later. Whichever you prefer. Thank you, and please let me know if you have any questions or problems. Tim -----Original Message----- From: whitney-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:whitney-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Tim Doyle Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 9:10 AM To: whitney@rootsweb.com Subject: [WHITNEY] Update - WRG Census Project The Whitney Research Group's Census Identification Project is progressing well! For those of you who might be unfamiliar with it, we are attempting to identify every Whitney listed on the early census records and link the census entry to the family group pages, and vice versa. This work has allowed us to make many connections that we have never made before - the pieces are starting to fall into place. 1790 Census: NEARLY COMPLETE We have been able to identify 367 of the 385 (95%) of the Whitneys on the 1790 census! The states of MA, CT, ME, and RI have been 100% identified. VT (93%), NY (91%), and NH (89%) are nearly complete, but NC (50%), PA (50%), and SC (0%) need more work. Jeanne Neilon has agreed to help us out with our understanding of the southern Whitney families. We need to get the Whitneys of the south better documented, but we need help! Neither Robert nor I are experts in southern research. 1800 Census: ONGOING We have been able to identify all but 101 Whitney households 1810 and later Censuses: NOT YET STARTED How can you help? We need volunteers who have subscriptions to the Ancestry.com census records to help with extracting the 1830 census. If you have access and would be willing to help, please contact me. Related Web Pages: Main WRG Website: http://wiki.whitneygen.org/ Census Identification Project Page: http://wiki.whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/Census_Identification_Project Thank you! Tim Doyle & Robert Ward Whitney Research Group Website Co-Administrators http://wiki.whitneygen.org/ -----Original Message----- From: whitney-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:whitney-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Tim Doyle Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 6:16 PM To: whitney@rootsweb.com Subject: [WHITNEY] FW: WRG Census Project We've all searched the census records as we've traced our own families. We typically start with the most recent census and then work backwards, following our family back through time. If we're lucky enough to get back to 1840 and earlier, we hope that we've identified the right family as only the head of household's name is listed. Each of us typically does this on our own, but what if we get it wrong? What if two of us claim the same person in one of these earlier census records and one of us is wrong? How would we ever know? What if someone mysteriously shows up in a location, and leaves no trail of where he came from? How can he be identified? To solve these issues, Robert and I have undertaken yet another WRG project! Name: The Census Identification Project Goal: Gain a better understanding of Whitney families by analyzing census records. Identify each Whitney in the census and create links between each census extract and the appropriate Family Group Page (FGP). Steps: 1. Start with 1790 & move to the next census when complete. 2. Re-extract the census entries 3. Identify individuals (using search, locality pages, etc.) 4. Create links from census extract pages to/from FGPs 5. Create new FGPs as new families are identified 6. Make and document any new learnings Benefits: 1. Allows us to follow each family through the census 2. Allows us to identify families who moved by the process of elimination 3. Allows us to identify those missing from the published census indexes and attempt to find them We're about 2/3 of the way through the 1790 census and we've already made a few connections. Robert Ward has stated "the analysis of the 1790 census entries has led me to some connections I hadn't made before. It has also led me to the realization that we are close to a tipping point, and to having a critical mass of data. Once we pass that point, we should be able to make even more connections, and when someone posts a query, we are, and will be, more and more able to answer it." Tim Doyle & Robert Ward Whitney Research Group Website Co-Administrators ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to WHITNEY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to WHITNEY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message