AR USGenWeb Archives Census Form Instructions

Use this form to abstract your census records and create a file ready for the Archives. This form will allow you to transcribe census from years 1850 - 1930. Use your tab key and the up and down arrows keys on your keyboard to navigate easily through the fields.
Please do not hit the Submit Button until you have completed all the fields.
You can enter your transcription and submit whenever you are ready, There is an option at the bottom
to specify whether this is complete or more to come later. Your file will be sent
to the archives and will let the Archivist know whether it is a complete or partial transcription and will allow you to finish at your leisure. Once a file reaches 300 lines you will get a warning letting you know to finish this file within 25 more lines and submit it as complete. The maximum lines for a file is 325. You will then need to submit that file as Complete, No More to Come. Then you may restart a new file to continue on with your transcription.
NOTE: It is advisable to submit your work after each couple of pages of census that you transcribe to ensure that it is saved. Submit it as Partial Census More to Come, then go to rescens.html to resume adding to your census transcription.
To start a new file go here census.html
To return to a file you have submitted as Partial More to Come,, please go here rescens.html
An Example of a census file created by these forms can be seen here excensus.txt

Feel free to click on the help/instructions button at any time during your transcription as it
will not affect your work in progress.
Thank you so much for sharing your records with others!!!!!
If you have any questions please contact Debra Crosby at poohbos@poohbos.com
 

Fields (Cick on Each for a Description)  Fields Marked with an Asterisk (*) are Required Fields
Your Email Address: *
Your Name-Submitter:*
Abstracted By:
County District:  *
Census Year:*
View Only Field:
Total Lines:
Data Entry Fields: (Name Dates, Comments)
LoadLine

Optional Lines:
Find Line
Find Next
Insert Line
Update Line
Delete Line
View Line
Line Number Field
Remove Last
County Where File is to Be posted * Required.
Select the county where the census was taken.

Is This Census Complete * Required
This option is available so that you can come back to your work at a later time and add more data and alerts the Archivist whether this is a completed census or partial and if there will be more to come. If it is a partial listing of just a few names that you have available to you, choose Partial Census No More to Come. If you will be adding more data to this census at a later time choose Partial Census More to Come. If it is completed choose Complete Census No More to Come.
If you submit a census as "Partial Census More to Come" when you are ready to resume you will go to rescens.html Enter your email address, name, census year and county exactly as you entered it on the first submission. This will bring your census back up in a window for you so that you can continue to add more. You can continue to add to the record until it has reached 300 lines at which time it will give you a warning to complete your work as the file is becoming too large. You can then add up to 25 more names giving you the chance to come to a stopping point. Then submit the census as "Complete" No More to Come" and start a new file for that county and year at census.htmlOnce you have submitted it as "Complete Census No More to Come" or "Partial Census No More to Come" you will no longer be able to pull it up the page you had been working on. When you restart a new page it will be a new file that you will be working on. If you need to make corrections or changes to a file after submitting it as "No More to Come" You would then need to contact the Archives manager to have the changes made.

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Your Email Address
This field is required.
Enter your legititmate email address as you wish it to appear on the file at the ARArchives.
Example: you@yoursisp.com
Back to Fields
 

Your Name-Submitter:*
This field is required.
Enter Your name as you wish it to appear on the file at the ARArchives.
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Abstracted By:
This field is not required.
This field is to be used if the person who abstracted the census is different than the submitter.
If you have had a proof reader, you can add their name in the comments section.
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County District  Enumeration District, Militia District etc.: *
This field is required.
This field is for location district identification of the census
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Census Description  Town, Post Office and additional information: *
This field is required.
This field is for other information which will help identify location.
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Census Year : *
This field is required.
This field identifies the census year which you are transcribing. These forms can be used for census years 1850 and up.
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View Only Field
This field is view only. As you enter text in the Names, Dates, Comments Location and hit
the "Loadline" button, the information you entered will appear in this field so that you may
see your work as you progress.
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Total Lines Field
This field is to show you the total number of lines that you have entered. No more than 325 lines/names can be added to any one file. You will receive a warning when you reach 300 lines, you have 25 more lines to continue to a stopping point. Then submit your file as Complete No More to Come. If you have more census to add, you will need to start a new file.

Back to Fields

Data Entry Lines: Last Name is required. If it is illegible, please type illegible. The other fields are optional.
First Name: This field is used for the first name of the individual. You can enter initial, or leave blank if not known, or unknown. etc.
Middle Name: This field is for the middle name and or maiden name if known.
Last Name:* This field is required. For the Surname/Last name. If unknown you can add "unknown" or "illegible" but please enter something in this field.
Relationship: This field became available in the 1880 census and up. For earlier census years leave this field empty. When you select Other, it will give you another dialog box to enter your information.
Race: This field is available on all census years from 1850 up, however some census takers did not always fill this field in. There are several options to choose from, including Unknown, Illegible and Other. When you select Other, it will give you another dialog box to enter your information.
Sex: Several options to choose from for this field including Unknown, Illegible and Other.
Date of Birth: This option only appears on the 1900 census, for all other census years, leave this field empty.
Age: Type the age in here. If illegible, type in ill. or ??
Marital Status: This field is where you list, Single, Married, Widowed etc. There are several options to choose from.
Occupation: Type in the occupation here, if none is listed on the census, leave this field empty.
Birth Location: This is where you list the birth location of the person listed on the census. Type into this field. Please when possible use two letter state abbreviations. This field will take more than two letters thus if they were born in Russia, you can type that in.
Birth Location of Father: Same as above but this field is for the father's birth location of the person shown on the census.
Birth Location of Mother: Same as above but this field is for the mother's birth location of the person shown on the census. NOTE: Remember that you can use your tab key to move between the fields and on the select buttons the up and down arrow keys will move through the selections.

Back to Fields

Loadline
Loadline is used to enter each name/line of the census. When you hit Loadline the data will appear in
the View Only Field and your cursor will place you back at the first name ready for your next entry.
You can easily tab between these fields and when you tab to Loadline hit the enter key to load your line.
Back to Fields

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Optional Lines: These Lines are here so that you can edit your entries.
Find Line: This option is here to help you find a previous line that you have entered.  Type the name you are looking for into the name fields and click on Find Line. It will bring the line number  into the Line # field. You can then choose View Field to have the data appear in the
data entry fields so that you can view or edit that line.
Back to Optional Lines

Find Next: This option lets you find again if the Surname entry from Find is not the one you were looking
for. This is useful in cases where there may be 2 "John Smiths". Clicking on this should give you the next John
Smith.
Back to Optional Lines

Insert Line: To insert an entry between two entries already posted. If you know the line number, enter that number in the Line # field.
The line you enter will be over the top of the line number you select. So enter the line number for the line under the one you wish to enter.
If you don't know the line number, enter the name you are searching, click find Line as instructed above in Find Line.
Then enter the data you wish to appear on that line and click Insert Line.
If you don't know the line number, enter the name you are searching, click find Line as instructed above in Find Line.

Back to Optional Lines
Update Line: This line will let you make changes to any previous line that you have submitted. First find the Line,
Then click on ViewLine. ViewLine gives you the line you posted into the Data Entry Fields. You can then make any necessary
changes and then click Update Line.

Back to Optional Lines
Delete Line: This option lets you remove a previous entered line. Find the line you wish to delete, make sure it's the
correct line by choosing ViewLine before Deleting. Once sure it's the line you want to remove and the correct number
in the Line # box, click on DeleteLine and it will remove that entry.

Back to Optional Lines
View Line: View Line allows you to bring the line into the data entry fields so that it can be updated or deleted. You must find the line first or enter the Line # in the number line box, then click the view line button to view it.

Back to Optional Lines
Line # Field: This is the field which lets you specify which lines you wish to find, insert,  update or delete.

Back to Optional Lines

Remove Last Entry: Clicking on this button will remove the last entry you made.

Back to Optional Lines

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If you have a census that is already typed up, please submit that directly to the archives manager for that county as this form will not let you copy/paste into the census field.
Thank you for your contributions!!