I’m working on translating and citing this document that I obtained when I was in Salt Lake at the Family History Library. Fortunately when I saved the file, I included part of the microfilm roll number as the file name.
The immigration records were the only item on the film, so a specific item number from the film was not necessary. The files were organized by first letter of the last name and the number of pages per file varied. I copied several files at the same time from this series of records. What I should have done at the time–and not later–was to make notes about the organization of the records in a document that was saved with the actual images. That document should have included what I noted about the records as I went through them–whether they were totally alphabetical, chronological by first letter of last name, how many pages were typically in a file, if there were any sort of page numbers, if the page numbers started over with each file, if there was a set of page numbers that started with each set of files based on the first letter of the name, etc. These are things that I will not remember later.
Fortunately I copied enough of these records that I can determine these things now. But it would have been easier if I had typed up these observations as I was making the digital images.
Not later.
The roll number 1257600 indicated that I was using the Auswanderungskonsenses from Ostfriesland, Germany for the years 1868-1913 that were for individuals whose last name began with a “G.” Including the roll number as a part of the file name when saving images from microfilm is always a good idea. Then I’ve got the citation to the roll without having to include that as a part of the image.
Now I’ve just got to go back and complete the rest of the citation. I’ve also got to translate this part of the documents as well.
Bertus Grass signed his name at the bottom of the document. It may look like his middle initial is an “F.” It’s not.
His name was Bertus Johannes Grass–which is referenced earlier in the document.
We’ll have an update with a citation as well. These are wonderful documents. I just wish more of my immigrants from Ostfriesland had them.
