Immigration & Naturalization

Project Guidelines

Thank you for your time, dedication, and help!

Please review the USGenWeb Project Copyright Information page.
State File Manager Guidelines
  • What is Needed From You:
    • You should check and return emails on a weekly basis.
    • You should be familiar with HTML, or with using an HTML editor.
    • You should be somewhat familiar with uploading web pages with an FTP program.
    • Please ask the Project Coordinator if you need assistance.
  • Web Page Maintenance: We are not in need of state or county coordinators at this time.
    • You are responsible for maintaining the project web page for your state. You may keep the page created by the Project Coordinator, or replace it with a page of your own design.
    • Your state page must include the following (see an example):
      • The USGenWeb project title ("Immigration & Naturalization") at the top of the page.
      • The name of your state at the top of the page.
      • A link to the USGenWeb Project.
      • A link to the USGenWeb Archives Project.
      • A link to the USGenWeb Immigration & Naturalization Project.
      • A link to a page for each county for which you have transcriptions assigned or uploaded.
      • The name and email address of the Project Coordinator.
      • The name and email address of the Project Assistant Coordinator.
      • Your name and email address, as the State File Manager.
      • The date your state and/or county pages were last updated.
    • Your county pages must include the following (see an example):
      • The USGenWeb project title ("Immigration & Naturalization") at the top of the page.
      • The name of your state and county at the top of the page.
      • A link to the USGenWeb Immigration & Naturalization Project.
      • A link to your USGenWeb Immigration & Naturalization state page.
      • Your name and email address, as the State File Manager for the project.
      • The date your county page was last updated.
    • Links to specific immigration and naturalizaton resources for your state/counties should be referred to the appropriate USGenWeb State/County page as a resource link.
    • When naming your files or directories with letters, please use a lowercase format only.
  • Communication:
    • The Project Coordinator will email a "Monthly Roll Call" at the beginning of each month. You must reply by the end of that month, or it will be assumed that you are no longer available.
    • Please notify the Project Coordinator of changes to your email address.
    • You will automatically be subscribed to the USGWA-IMMIGRATION-L@rootsweb.com administrative mailing list.
    • Please subscribe to the USGenWeb Daily Uploads mailing list, so that you can find newly uploaded files to which you can link from your county pages.
    • Please respond to emails from transcription volunteers. Keep a list of what volunteers plan to transcribe which records for each county to prevent duplicate efforts. It is recommended you note this on your county pages (see example).
    • Please respond to emails from researchers. Coordinators are not lookup volunteers. It is recommended that you reply to any requests by suggesting an appropriate resource, such as that state's USGenWeb page.
    • Please coordinate with your state's USGenWeb Archives File Manager to upload submitted files to the appropriate location.
  • File Management:
    • Receive index or records transcriptons from your volunteers.
    • Check and correct the format and preparation of submitted transcripts.
    • Virus check all files before submission.
    • Prepare and email submissions to your state's USGenWeb Archives File Manager.
    • Follow up with your Archives File Manager if you don't see your submission noted on the Daily Uploads mail list within 2 weeks.
    • Link to any uploaded transmissions from your appropriate county page. All submissions will be stored in the USGenWeb Archives for the state and county in which the records were recorded.
    • Email the Project Coordinator when you link to a new transcription, as these will be posted in an RSS feed of new records.
  • It is optional for File Mangers to complete transcriptions on their own.

Transcriber Guidelines
  • What is Needed From You:
    • Locate and transcribe indexes and collections of public domain immigration and naturalization records. We do not furnish records to transcribe. Placed to look for these records include:
      • The National Archives and Records Administration.
      • State archives and repositories.
      • County, city, or court archives.
      • Local libraries may also own microfilmed copies of these records.
    • No copyright materials may be included.
    • Please email the project's State File Manager to advise of the specific records you want to transcribe. This is to avoid different volunteers trying to work on the same records.
  • How to Format and Submit Transcriptions:
    • Files need to be created and submitted in an Ascii text format (.txt).
      • If you created your files in a proprietary format, such as Excel or Word, please do a "Save As" to rename the file in .txt format. Hard "tabs" are not encouraged, as they do not translate the same on all browsers. Please use "5 hard spaces" in place of tabs. Submit spreadsheet data in comma or tab delimited format. You may also submit data in paragraph form.
      • Large files may be split.
      • Please use font type 'Courier New', size 10pt (plain text).
      • Please email the Project Coordinator if you need assistance formatting your documents.
    • The material contained in these indexes and records will vary by locality, time, and institution. Please use your judgment as to how much information to include. You definitely want to look for and include:
      • Source citation (name of archive, microfilm roll and film tile/numbers, book name, page number, etc.).
      • Type of event/documentation (Ship passenger list, border crossing record, alien registration, petition for naturalization, naturalization certificate, etc.).
      • Name of immigrant(s), date/place/method of of entry, vessel name, name/place of processing institution/court, passenger/alien registration number, date of petition/naturalization, place of embarkation, place of origin residence, intended destination, occupation, marital status, age, dependents/spouse, etc.
    • A required header must appear at the top of each file transcribed, submitted, and uploaded.
    • Until we are able to post some actual sample transcriptions, please refer to these samples from the USGenWeb Archives Marriage Project to use as general format guidelines:
    • Please submit transcriptions for an entire group of records (i.e., microfilm roll, paper log or ledger) rather than individual records.
    • Virus scan and email completed transcriptions to the project's State File Manager as an attachment.

USGenWeb Volunteer Guidelines
  USGenWeb Archives
Immigration & Naturalization Project Home Page

 

Immigration & Naturalization Project Coordinator
Linda Sullivan-Simpson

 

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