Indexing vs. Scanning

Some Yesterday's Names parish magazine CDs contain detailed name indexes, detailing each reference to a name, with transcriptions of some articles, whereas others contain just a simple name index plus scanned images of the magazine pages.

Why?

Well, when I started Yesterday's Names, I thought long and hard about scanning versus indexing, and I eventually decided that even if I went for scanning, I would still want to include a name index. The reason for this is that people aren't necessarily where you might expect them to be, and in almost every index I've created I've found references to people who don't live in the parish being indexed. In addition to the index on each CD, I also have a mammoth master index of all the names in all the indexes I've produced - very useful for tracking missing ancestors or for one name studies! One day I might even make it available on-line.

The decision about whether to scan as well really depends on the quality of the magazines for the parish. These documents are over a hundred years old, and were often printed on coloured paper. The quality of the paper is also very variable, often now very fragile, and in some cases the magazines have been bound so tightly, it would be impossible to scan them without removing them from their binding. The worst thing though is trying to get a decent quality scan with faded print on coloured paper (the colour often differing on each page!).

So - if the pages are of a fairly uniform background colour, the print is reasonably distinct, and the paper will stand up to it - then I'll scan the pages and accompany them with a simple name index. If the pages aren't easily scannable, then I'll do a detailed name index, extracting as much of the information about each name reference as possible, and adding in transcriptions of a selection of articles.

So now you know!