great "help" text to update our default help with

[saracarl]

Alabama has amazing "help" text. We should figure out how to incorporate a generic version of this into FromThePage, based on the type of project it is.

Alabama Voter Registration Books (1875) - HELP

• Collection Information

• General Instructions

• FromThePage Navigation

• Page Format

• Field Definitions

(Click here for a downloadable PDF of instructions.)

Collection Information

This collection consists of 61 volumes of voter registration oaths taken in 32 Alabama counties, primarily taken in 1875. Each book records the date the oath was taken; the voter's name, race, and employer; and the name of the registrar administering the oath. The full text of the registration oath is printed at the top of each page.

The books are available in the ADAH digital collections, and this project will enhance access to them by allowing users to search for individuals by name, county, and race.

If you still have questions after examining this page, contact Meredith McDonough at [email protected]

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General Instructions

• INCONSISTENCIES
  • The pages may contain spelling errors and inconsistencies. Our goal is not to determine what is correct, but rather to provide enough details so that researchers can find the entries that are relevant to their work.
• SPELLING
  • Transcribe people's names exactly as they appear, including abbreviations. Use the Notes field to provide corrected spellings or complete names.
• ILLEGIBLE TEXT
  • If characters in a word are difficult to read, make a guess and enclose the entire word in single square brackets: [Tomlinson]. Also explain the issue in the Notes field.
• SAVING
  • Save your work as you go by clicking the Save button. (We recommend saving every few minutes to ensure that your work is not accidentally lost.) When you have completed a page, click the Done button. You will still be able to edit the page if needed, but it will not be offered to other transcribers.

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FromThePage Navigation

• FINDING PAGES
  • From the list of ADAH collections, select Alabama Voter Registration Books (1875) to select a county.
    • If you don’t have a preference, you can click the Start Transcribing button below the collection name, and an available page will be presented to you.
  • On the collection overview page, select a county.
    • Only ten volumes display at a time, so you may need to click through the results pages as the bottom of the list to find a particular county. (Not all counties are represented in the collection; for a list of available counties, see the digital collection landing page.)
    • After a volume has been completely transcribed, it will no longer display to the public. If you cannot find a particular set, it was likely completed by someone else. (However, completed sets will continue to display if any cards have been marked for staff review.)
  • On the county page, click the Pages That Need Transcription button on the right.
  • From the list of results, select the next page that has not been started.
    • Look for a page with a status of Not Started. The status is shown under the thumbnail for each page.
    • Only one user should work on a page at a time, so skip any pages in the results that are underway. You’ll find the status under the thumbnail for the page.
• TRANSCRIBING
  • Adjust the page display as needed:
    • Fullscreen view is recommended to provide the maximum amount of space for the spreadsheet.
    • The default view displays the image of the page above the transcription spreadsheet. You can adjust the display to move the image below the fields, or to the left or right of the screen.
    • Click and drag the page image to zoom and pan. Other controls (zoom, rotate, brightness) are available at the top of the viewing area (if they are not displaying, hover the mouse over the top of the viewing area to make them reappear).
  • Type information into the blank fields or choose appropriate terms from the drop-down list fields (County and Race).
  • While transcribing a page, periodically click the Save button (above the viewing area on the right). When a page is complete, click the Done button.
  • Advance to the next page using the arrows at the top right of the page, above the Save and Done buttons. You can also navigate to previous pages to compare names and details. (If you attempt to move to another page without first saving your work, you will be prompted to do so.)
  • ADAH staff will not monitor comments left in the Page Notes feature at the bottom of each page. Use the Notes field in each record to make comments for staff review.
• SPREADSHEET DATA ENTRY
  • Navigation using keyboard shortcuts:
    • Use the arrow keys to move up and down, left and right.
    • Tab will move one cell to the right; Shift + Tab will move one cell to the left.
  • When entering data on a row in the spreadsheet, a green screen ruler will appear on the page image to help transcribers keep track of which line they’re working on. The ruler’s placement may be imprecise, however, so use your judgment and ignore the ruler if it is not helpful.
  • Some fields require data to be entered a particular way. For this collection, those fields are County and Race, which provide drop-down lists of approved terms, and Date, which requires a specific format. If information is entered incorrectly, the field will turn red until the error is corrected (you may need to save changes first). If you choose to leave the unapproved term or format, but explain the decision in the Notes field.
  • The registrars who wrote in these volumes often used ditto marks (“ or DO) in fields where the value of a previous cell is duplicated in several cells beneath it. In such cases, enter the information the marks are intended to represent.
  • There are a couple of ways to copy the contents of one cell into several others:
    • Copy and paste
      • Click once on a cell and use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C to copy the contents. (If you double-click on the cell, you’ll need to highlight the text first.)
      • Click once on empty cell and then hold down Shift while pressing the down arrow to select the desired number of cells.
      • Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + V to paste the contents.
    • Click and drag
      • Click once a cell once so that it is outlined in blue (but the cursor is not inside).
      • A small square will appear in the lower right corner of the selected cell. Hover over that square until the cross-hair cursor appears. Use the crosshair to click on square and drag down to select the desired cells. The contents of the first cell will be copied to them.
  • Column widths will automatically change to accommodate the contents of the cells.
  • If there are more entries on a page than rows in the spreadsheet, type or insert the cursor into the bottom right cell and then click Tab to start a new line. If there are fewer entries on a page than rows in the spreadsheet, leave the extra lines blank (there is no need to delete them).
  
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  Page Format

  Each page includes a header and footer that gives the county, precinct, registrar, and date range for the entries on the page, along with the full text of the oath each elector took. The body of the page consists of rows and columns with details about the individual voters, including date of registration, name, race, and occupation. (The numbers on the page image correspond with the field definitions below.)

  

  
  
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  Fields Definitions

  Fields 1 through 4 apply to the entire page. The information for them is found in the header and footer of the page image.

  Fields 5 through 14 apply to each entry on the page. Every column is a field, and every row represents an individual elector.

  Fields 7 through 10 are components of the Names of Electors field in the volumes. They have been separated here to facilitate sorting and alphabetization of the records created during this transcription project. Most registrars wrote electors’ names direct order (first, middle, last), so that is how the fields are presented in the spreadsheet. In several instances, however, the registrars wrote names in inverted order (last, middle, first): Clay, Henry, Jackson, Lee (book 5 only), and Mobile. When working on these volumes, be mindful that the fields in the spreadsheet will be in a slightly different order than the fields on the page image.

  1. County
     • County where the voters were registered, located at the top left corner of the page. Select the appropriate county name from the provided drop-down menu. (Click on the field to view the complete list of terms. You can also begin typing the county name to pull up the correct term.)
  2. Precinct or Ward (Place)
     • Place name associated with the precinct or ward, located at the top right corner of the page. May or may not be accompanied by a precinct or ward number. Leave blank if no place is included.
  3. Precinct or Ward (Number)
     • Number associated with the precinct or ward, located at the top right corner of the page. May or may not be accompanied by a precinct or ward place name. Omit the abbreviation “No.” and leave blank if no number is included.
  4. Registrar
     • Full name of the registrar responsible for completing the entries, written in direct order: W. T. Northington. (Separate initials by a space and include periods even if they are not written on the page: W. T. ) Name may appear in the Registrar’s Attestation field, but see signatures at the bottom of the page to verify.
     • Sometimes the registrar used initials in one space but spelled out his first name in another; in that case, use the most complete form of the full name.
  5. Number
     • Number of the entry in the volume. Note that on some pages, the first digit may be lost in the gutter of the book. Because numbering is consecutive throughout a volume, you can use the surrounding entries to determine what the number should be.
  6. Date
     • Date the elector was registered, entered in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD (for example, May 3, 1875 would be 1875-05-03). Often this column only includes a month and day, so you may need to look in the footer section to determine the year. (For most volumes in the collection, the year is 1875, but there are some exceptions.) If the required format is not used, the cell will turn red until the error is corrected.
     • Some registrars used ditto marks (“) instead of writing out the date each time. In those cases, type the full date the marks were intended to represent.
  7. First Name
     • First name of the individual. If only an initial is given, end with a period even if the original text does not include punctuation. If the name is abbreviated, type as written (include a period even if not written on the page: Wm., Geo., etc.), and add an explanation in the Notes field. (See note above regarding name order.)
  8. Middle Name
     • Middle name of the individual. If only an initial is given, end with a period even if the original text does not include punctuation. If more than one middle initial is given, include both in this field, separated by a space: W. H. Leave the field blank if no middle name or initial is included. (See note above regarding name order.)
  9. Last Name
     • Last name of the individual. (See note above regarding name order.)
  10. Suffix or Title
      • Suffix (Jr., Sr., III, etc.) or title (Dr., Mrs., etc.) of the individual. Include a period at the end of the suffix or title even if the original text does not use punctuation, except for Roman numerals (such as III). Leave the field blank if no suffix or title is included. (See note above regarding name order.)
  11. Registrar’s Attestation
      • Name of the registrar, written in direct order. Separate initials by a space and include periods even if they are not written on the page: W. T. Northington. Leave the field blank if no name is written.
      • Some registrars only wrote their names by selected individuals (presumably illiterate citizens, as some of those entries also include “his mark” notations), while others signed beside the name of every elector.
  12. Race
      • The race of the individual, indicated by Colored (or C) and White (or W). Select the appropriate term from the provided drop-down list, African American or White.
      • Some registrars used ditto marks (“) instead of writing out the race each time. In those cases, select the term from the drop-down list that the marks were intended to represent.
  13. Employer
      • Employer or occupation of the individual. Type the full contents of the field as written, except for ditto marks—in that case, type the words the marks were intended to represent.
      • Type the full contents of the field, even if the information does not relate to employment details. Use the Notes field to record questions or explanations about seemingly irrelevant content.
  14. Notes
      • Use this field to record additional details about the cards or to communicate with ADAH staff. Examples:
        • Alert staff to text that require further review (such as abbreviations or illegible words), or mention information that doesn’t fit in another field (such as notations of “his mark” for illiterate voters).
        • Report problems with the scanned image of a page. For example, if the same page has been digitized twice, or if the image is upside down or illegible even after zooming in.
  
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