Hungarian Vital Records Project
As a result of various measures and
rules that were
promulgated during the nineteenth century, local religious authorities
began in
the early to mid 1850’s to maintain registers listing births, deaths
and
marriages throughout the Jewish communities within Hungary. These
records
represent a treasure trove of genealogical information about 19th
century people and communities. In October, 1895 these registers were
officially discontinued in favor of national civil registers, although
some
Jewish communities continued to maintain their own records.
The Vital Records Project seeks to transcribe and create
on-line indexes to these records. The transcriptions will contain
reference to
the original source, so that a researcher may readily find the original
record.
At this point in time, over 250,000 vital records have been
transcribed and added to the All-Hungarian Database. Until recently,
this
effort was an informal process of various H-SIG members volunteering to
transcribe records that were of interest to them. Recently this project
has
become more formalized and we are attempting to seek out transcribers
and
validators/proofreaders for this project. PLEASE VOLUNTEER TO HELP.
Contact the Coordinator, Sam Schleman, at Samara99@verizon.net.
The primary source of the records being transcribed is LDS microfilms.
However, other sources are also being utilized. These films are being
digitized
to permit transcribers to work at home using these digitized images,
which
can be displayed on your home computer.
No language skills are required.
We provide translation guides
where they are necessary. Basic computer skills are needed, but
advanced
computer skills are not necessary.
A more complete introduction to the vital records will be
found associated with the All-Hungarian Database.
Following are instructions for volunteers:
If you have any questions or comments, please send an email
to Samara99@verizon.net.
Many thanks,
Sam Schleman
Vital Records Project Coordinator
Instructions for Volunteers
1.
Complete
the JewishGen Volunteer Agreement, which is located at http://www.jewishgen.org/jewishgen/agree/volunteer.html
and mail or fax a
completed copy
to the address indicated on the form, or else scan and send a
hand-signed copy
as an email attachment to the Project Coordinator. The first assignment
is as a
“Transcriber” for the “Hungarian Vital Records Project”. The
document must
be hand-signed.
2.
Contact
the Project Coordinator at Samara99@verizon.net
to indicate any preferences you may have for a transcription
assignment. We
will attempt to accommodate any preferences you have, if possible. At
this
time, we will also note your email capability (broadband or dial-up),
to determine
the volume of images that you can download in a reasonable time. While
the
description of the individual databases (Birth, Marriage and Deaths)
list which
towns are included in the AHD, they do not indicate which other towns
are
currently being transcribed or which have not yet been assigned.
Links to the appropriate templates
are below. The templates are in Excel format. Because of problems that
exist
when using Excel 2000, please save all spreadsheets in the format
described as
"Microsoft Excel 97-2000 & 5.0/95 Workbook." If you don’t use
this format, we may have trouble transferring your data.
Spreadsheets other than Excel can be utilized, but you will need to
contact Sam Schleman to obtain
instructions and the templates for your spreadsheet.
Birth Template
Marriage
Template
Death Template
3. You
will then be emailed vital record images, which you will transcribe
into the templates. The Project
Coordinator or Town Coordinator shall indicate the beginning page
number for the group of
records
you receive. Once you have transcribed the batch of records sent to
you, you
should send a copy of the spreadsheet as an attachment to an email to Samara99@verizon.net. Make sure
that you
keep a copy of what you submit in case of a mishap at our end or in the
transmission. The spreadsheet(s) sent should indicate your surname and
the type of records (birth, death, or marriage) the file name. In
addition, the spreadsheets are cumulative
and as
additional records for a given town are transcribed, they should be
added to
the same spreadsheet(s). A transcriber would create a maximum of three
spreadsheets for a town: one each for births, marriages, and deaths.
4.
Column
headings may be in German, Hungarian or both. A guide to assist you in
their translation has been created at Vital
Record Headings.xls. The
original entries are
made in script easily understood by anyone, although the
handwriting may be somewhat ornate and therefore require interpretation.
5.
The
Project Coordinator or Town Coordinator shall have the transcribed
records
validated/proofed and any corrections necessary
shall be brought to the attention of the transcriber.
6.
Additional
images will be emailed and the process described above repeated until
the transcriber is
comfortable with the process. Larger quantities of images may then be
emailed once s/he is comfortable and has gained some
experience in the transcription process.
7.
Periodically,
the transcribed records will be submitted to update the AHD. Since
H-SIG does not control the
updating of the database, a period of time may pass between submitting
a
completed set of records and their inclusion in the AHD.
8.
Transcriptions
shall be performed using the Transcriber Instructions below, and using
the appropriate
Templates. The
Transcriber
Instructions must be followed. Any deviation will prevent records
from
being added to the All Hungarian Database.
9.
All
questions, comments, and/or concerns with respect to this project and
its processes are welcomed, but should
be brought to the attention of the Project Coordinator by private email
to Samara99@verizon.net.
JewishGen
technical consultants will be contacted by the Coordinator when
necessary to
obtain appropriate technical advice. Volunteers should NOT post their
project-related questions and comments to the H-SIG or any other public
discussion group, nor should they contact JewishGen staff directly.
TRANSCRIPTION RULES
1.
DO
NOT alter the spreadsheet templates in any way. Do not change
headings
or fonts. Columns can
be increased or decreased in width,
and rows increased or decreased in height, but no other changes can be
made.
2.
JewishGen’s
agreement with
the Hungarian National Archives requires that each transcriber and
validator
must delete the images sent to them and return any CD’s after
completing their
work on the project. The transcribers and validators must not share
images with
others or use them for any purpose other than transcribing and
validating for
entry into the All Hungarian Database.
3. Certain
large towns may have a Town Coordinator who will act as the Project
Coordinator for that
town. The Town Coordinator may establish
procedures
governing the naming of spreadsheet files and the record numbering
scheme which
are unique to that town and which supercede the procedures described
here.
However, in all other respects other than filenames and record
numbering, these
instructions shall prevail.
4. The first column shall contain the page and the item number of the
record
on that
page. Page number will be the consecutive page number within the Volume
within which
you are working. Do
not use item or row numbers that may be present on the image,
as we
have found there may be duplicates. The page number should allow a
researcher
to count that number of pages within the Volume and get to the correct
page.
For example, the first record on the first page would be 1-01, the
second
record on page 1 would be 1-02 and the first record on page two would
be
2-01. These numbers would be repeated within the subsequent
Volumes. Item
numbers are always two digits. There will be only one page with a given
number
within a particular volume. The page numbering procedure does not
change when
records change from births to marriages, for example. If a set of
records is on
page 17, it is page 17 regardless of what type of records are on that
page.
When
you are emailed a
group of images,
the Project
Coordinator or Town Coordinator shall inform you of the page number to
use with
the first page of the images sent. This is to ensure that the
transcribed
records are numbered consecutively.
5. Spreadsheets
should contain your surname and the type of records in the spreadsheet,
for example, SmithBirths.xls or
JonesMarriages.xls. There should only be a maximum of three
spreadsheets for
each town, one each for births, deaths, and marriages. Additional
records of a
given type should be added onto the previous spreadsheet containing
that type
(birth, death, etc.) of record.
6.
All
SURNAMES must be written in all caps, for example KLEIN. This applies
whereever a surname is entered.
7.
Dates
must be entered as a text field, not date field, as follows:
DD-MMM-YYYY. For
example: 22-Sep-1891. Note
that the
month is leading
capital only, and dashes are used to separate day, month and year.
Enter
whatever you can for a partial, such as just the year.
If when entering a
date your
spreadsheet tries to convert it to a mathematical expression, you
should select
the entire column and then on the title bar, select “Format”, then
“Cells”,
then under the Number tab, make sure “Text” is selected.
8. Where
gender is required, enter a single letter “M” or “F”
rather than “male” or “female”. “Fi” is male and “no” is female in
Hungarian. If
the gender is not specified, you should check the column for date of
circumcision for an entry for males.
9. If you cannot
read the town name, or the word
written appears suspect, default to the name of the town from whose
registers
you are transcribing. However, if the town is entered in an abbreviated
form,
the transcriber may enter his/her conjecture as to the unabbreviated
name by
using brackets (see 18.h, below), such as “T. Lok / [Tiszalok]”.
10. The
Town Where Registered, the District (jaras) and County (megye) will all
be specified
by the Project
Coordinator or Town Coordinator. These are constants and will not
change.
It is recommended that these columns be “hidden” to reduce scrolling
when doing
data entry. Do not change any of these values unless the Project
Coordinator or
Town Coordinator says to do so.
11.
The
“Source” will normally contain the term “LDS” followed by the film
number for all records obtained
from the Mormons. In addition, if the records for the town are spread
among
multiple items or volumes, the item/volume number will be indicated,
preceded
by the appropriate term. For example, the complete entry might be “LDS
642902,
Vol 2” or “LDS 642902, Item 3”. In the event the source is not a
film from the
Mormons, contact the Project Coordinator to determine the correct entry.
Source may change from one volume or the other, but is a constant
within a given volume and thus may be "hidden" to reduce scrolling.
12.
The column
for “Other Surnames” is a searchable field, meaning that an entry in
this field
can result in a “hit” when one is searching the AHD. However, the
“Other
Surnames” field will not display in the AHD. Therefore, unless using
this field
to indicate a spelling variation, the name entered in this field should
also be
entered into the “Comments” field. Otherwise, someone searching the AHD
will be
unable to tell why a record displayed in the AHD. Again, SURNAMES are
entered
as ALL CAPS.
13. “Other
Towns” is also a searchable field that does not display upon searching
the AHD. As described above, any towns entered in
this field should also be described in the “Comments” field. Examples
of the
usage of “Other Towns” might be to describe the town that a groom was
from,
when different from the bride’s town and place of marriage, or the town
of
birth of someone who has died. For example, “Groom born in Tokaj” or
“Bride
born in
Nyiregyhaza
”.
14.
The
Comments field is used to record any additional information the
transcriber feels will be useful. As indicated
above, this field will be used to describe any entry made to :”Other
Surnames”
or to “Other Towns”. In addition, it
should also be used to indicate
the age of
the deceased for death records, such as “Age = 63”.
15.
Double
quotes (“ ) cannot be used anywhere within the spreadsheet. Due to
technical reasons, the use of
double quotes, even in the “Comments” field, could prevent the
spreadsheet from
being posted to the AHD. Ditto marks also
should not be
used. If the original register uses ditto marks, write in the name to
which
they apply.
16.
Enter the
names in the same order as they appear in the original register to
facilitate the validation process.
17.
Extreme
care should be used with the auto-complete function of Excel. This
function
will cause entries whose beginning letters match a previous entry to be
automatically completed to match the previous entry. If you are looking
at the
keyboard and not the screen, you may not be aware of what entry has
been made.
For example, if you entered the name ROTHMAN and then wanted to enter
ROTH,
Excel may insert ROTHMAN into the cell, rather than the intended ROTH.
Even if
you type ROTH, the appendage of MAN will remain.
It is strongly recommended that
you turn off the auto-complete function while doing vital records data
entry.
To turn it off, in Excel, go to Tools > Options > Edit. The
bottom
check-box is “Enable AutoComplete for cell values.” You should ensure
that this
box is not checked.
18.
Information
from the original registers should be entered exactly as it appears in
the register. The Transcriber
should not perform analysis or interpretation regarding the records. They
should enter, in so far as possible, exactly what appears in the
original
record. A complete guide to data entry is contained at Transcription
Rules. However, below are some of the key elements.
a.
If
an entry is abbreviated, it should be transcribed exactly as
abbreviated. We
cannot tell if “Abr.” is Abram or Abraham.
b.
Do
not change the spelling of names. For example, do not change Salamon to
Solomon.
c.
All
diacritical marks (the little accent marks used above certain letters
for
pronunciation purposes) are to be ignored.
d. Missing
data for a field is indicated with a dash or hyphen (‘-). Fields other
than
Other Surnames, Other Towns, and Comments should not be left blank. To
enter a
hyphen in a spreadsheet, enter a single quote and then the hyphen or
dash.
Otherwise, Excel will think you are entering a formula.
e. If
a data item is totally illegible, place a single question mark in the
cell. A question
mark should also follow all questionable entries (See example below in
g.).
f.
Use ellipsis (“…”) to indicate illegible
letters when a
name is partially illegible. For example, enter “SM…TH” if you can’t
determine
what letters are between “SM” and “TH”.
g.
If
you cannot differentiate between two possibilities, indicate both,
separated by
spaces and a slash, as in “STERN? / STEIN?”. Both will be picked up by
the
search engine.
h.
Information
which is not in the original record, but which is conjectured by the
transcriber or validator should be enclosed in square brackets. For
example,
say a child’s last name is in the register as “GRINBERG”, but the
father’s name
is given as “GRINBERGER”. The transcriber could enter
the child’s
surname as “GRINBERG
/ [GRINBERGER]”. This means that a database search will match this
record for either
surname.
i Fields that repeat, such as Source,
must be entered
in each row. Ditto marks are not permitted.
19.
Keep in
mind that we are creating an index to enable the researcher to find the
original record. Supplementary
information such as witnesses to a marriage is not necessary for an
index. On
the other hand, we should try to transcribe enough information to
enable the
researcher to locate her or his record out of the many. For example,
the age at
which someone died may be critical to a researcher locating their
relative out
of numerous others with similar names. Do
not enter witnesses, the mohel, or the midwife unless doing so is
approved by the Project Coordinator.
20.
Column
headings can be in German or Hungarian or both. A guide to
these headings is at Vital
Record Headings.xls. This guide is
in Excel; other formats are available by contacting the Project
Coordinator in writing at Samara99@verizon.net.
Additional help in
interpreting column headings from Hungarian is available at http://consulting.medios.fi/dictionary/.
21. To facilitate your understanding of what a transcribed record
should look like, examples are available to review at VitalRecordsExamples.xls
Hints Regarding Old Script
1.
If
having difficulty interpreting a letter, look for other entries in the
register
in which that letter may be more
clear.
2.
Look
for other recognizable names to clarify how a letter was written by a
particular recorder.
3.
Very common problems in interpreting handwriting are that the
lower case "t" is frequently uncrossed and that “Z” is sometimes
used instead of “S” (Zali instead of Sali) or in combinations
such as "SZ" (WEISZ, GROSZ) and "CZ" (SCHVARCZ).