Indexing again

I love digital images of official records. They can help me to prove a pedigree. But they have a serious flaw. They need to be indexed before they are computer searchable. Once they are indexed, it takes only a few seconds to do a computer search for the name, date and place of the event. But until they are indexed you cannot. 

Admittedly, you can sometimes search through un-indexed digital images manually, but it is a slow and tedious process. And after a while of looking for the "needle in the haystack", it becomes very easy to miss the record you are looking for. 

A am very grateful for indexers, who do the tedious work of indexing, So, I am indexing again to help. My biggest problem is finding an indexing project where I can feel that I am making a positive contribution, Back in the spring, I enjoyed the 1851-1852 census of Canada West. When it was finished, I floundered, I tried a couple of other indexing projects, then I gave up. In recent weeks I tried again, with more success. For me, the most essential factor is probably legibility. I was indexing Northumberland UK records successfully, until I started getting batches that I found illegible, 

Then I switched to South African death records, written in a combination of English and Afrikaans. The Afrikaans language and unfamiliar African names have been an occasional challenge, but the records are usually very legible, Eureka! I will stick to this project until it is finished, then I will try to find another project that is nicely legible.

Because each project has a certain "learning curve", I like to stick to any particular project until it is completed. That way I am much faster and more accurate. At present, I am trying to complete 10 batches of 4 records per day, which takes me less than 2 hours. 

I like to use ClipX, which remembers the 25 items most recently copied to the Windows clipboard. (If it was not available, I would use the Windows 10 clipboard history function.) That way I can write "Kaap Provinsie" or "Sardget, Riebaliwes, Malmesbury" by pressing the Win+V keyboard shortcut. I am a poor typist, and any tools that can help me are appreciated. 

Onward and upward! I hope you have a joyful Christmas and much success in 2021.