Well, we've gone home and our final number is:
732,344 Images
58,127 Probates
We even had the Dominion Post come in and do a small piece that was picked up in most papers across New Zealand.
Nice to end on this note!
Our last couple of weeks were spent training the Stucki's from Highland, Utah and the Nom's from Hamilton returned to work until May when they will head to Papua New Guinea.
 | ||||||
Here's Tom with Jonathan and Binti
Here are Steve & Cathy Stucki from Highland, Utah. They'll be working at Archives for the next 18 months having replaced the Overton's. |
The Nom's returned honing their skills at prep and capture.
They were here for 2 days and their visa's came through from Papau New Guinea.
Overton's ended with:
621,085 Images
50,105 Probates
Here they are with their 600,000th image!
All below this point is pre-January 2013
Wow, there has been monster progress at the Archives. We've cruised on past 600,000 and are nearing 700,000. Anyway....
You can see the sign above us, but at the end of the road behind us is actually the Archives we work at.
Here we are with 600,000 on the way to maybe 950,000.
Overton's are also flying hitting number 500,000. They will do over 600,000 prior to their departure! Is that cool or what!!!!
When we went to Auckland to meet Paul, Mollie and Lilah, we stopped in for a couple hours of update training for the Spencers. They are doing a fantastic job!
We've also been able to train Henry & Anne Nom from Hamilton. As soon as their visa comes, they will be headed to Papua New Guinea for 23 months. This is actually a very dangerous assignment and they have to stay in a compound....good luck!
All below this point is pre-November 2012
We've really turned on the gas at the Archives and are up to 564,000 records scanned. We even cleared 1,000,000 with the Overton's added in. The work goes on!
Here we are with Guy who helps a ton with our 1,000,000 records
This is our 500,000th on 27 September
This was our 400,000th on 2 August
We are really going to miss Fiona who's off to Japan. She kept us supplied with everything we needed!
We're in the records of Palmerston North now and will stay there until just after the Overton's depart for the US
Elders Christensen and Florian came and visited
Guy picked this up right off. He's a big help!
We may have shown this already, but it's worth the repeat. A very large map that we had to digitize.
Some of the records have something eating away at them!
On the 8th of June we digitised the probate of Henry Marsh. The document Tom is holding is our 300,000th record. We've pretty much reached our maximum level of output and that's between 12,000 and 14,000 images per week. At that rate, we'll go over 900,000 records for our mission. We'd estimate that we'll see the following production:
400,000 should come and go the first week of August
500,000 should come at the end of September
600,000 should come at the end of November
700,000 should come about mid February
800,000 should be seen about mid April
900,000 should be seen about mid June
We depart about 1 July 2013 so where will we end up????
We've been out traveling and visited all the courts where the records were generated that we have or will be capturing. Below is the front of the New Plymouth court. We should see these records near the end of our mission.
This is the Wanganui court house. We're about 1/2 the way through Wanganui expecting to end around the end of August.
================================================================
(Postings below are pre-April 2012)
We've had a busy 3 1/2 months of digitising. Since January we've seen 110,000 records cross the camera table. That's about 1,000 each day including Saturday's and Sunday's which we don't work. Right now, with the work of the Overton's, we're estimating that we've cut 3-1/2 years off the 10-year project with the speed we're moving at. Hope that we can keep it up. We've had a number of additional assignments. We spent 2 days in ChristChurch training the sisters there on some of the techniques we use. The effort increased their capture rate by about 5x. We then went to Auckland to train the Spencers and get their project started. What was scheduled to be a 7 day trip there ended up being 10 days because of delays in the arrival of equipment. We should hit 300,000 images about July 15th. Watch and we'll report.
Every now and then you get a super large document. This is a large map that was attached to a very large will. The map is on a skin of some sort and wrinkled badly. We had to capture this document in 6 different images.
Updates below are 2011
==================================
We have had a wonderful time the past few months at The Archives here in Wellington. We're moving along rather rapidly through the probates of Napier and what was originally thought to be about a year project will now take us about 10 months and we will have completed with the Overtons some 39,000 probates and 400,000 images or about 10% of the total project. For an up-to-date picture on where we stand with digitising, look just to the right and you'll see our up-to-date capture status.
Every now and then we get very large documents. They tend to be maps like this one.
Here's a closer view of the large map. You can see that it's very colorful and detailed. It shows property ownership for bequething land. Too bad we're not capturing the images in color. Just B&W now. The memory size would dwarf the imagination if everything was in color!
You can see that the large docs are just too large to take in one picture. You've got to take them in two, four or six sections that make sense and are easy to connect back together. In the computer you "Attach" them to one another so they stay as a group.
Of course we had to decorate the "Digi Lab" for the holidays. We didn't see a lot of this taking place throughout the Archives. There was a tree or two here and there!
Here's a few fun examples of what we're capturing! The document just below is what you'd want to find in every probate. A detailed pedigree of those of the deceased family. Not so though! This is the only one we've found in nearly 7,500 probates so far.
Now to the genealogist, a document like the one below would also be a treasure! It shows all the children and ages of the deceased.
I tend to like some of the details of the wills. Here are tow examples of what I really like....the deceased has bequethed firearms and other sporting goods to family! My kind of guys!
Some of the documents are just beautifully written. This is an example of the writing on a 150 year old will. It's actual size was about two feet wide and three feet long.
In early December we had a delgation from the Tongan government drop in for about an hour to see how the digitising took place. Mike Higgins (on the far right) is trying to work out an agreement with the Tongan government to start digitising some of their records and they wanted to see what it took.
Here we all are for the formal picture that was taken for The Archives! Those from Tonga are all those with ties on excluding Mike. We're real close to reaching a digitising agreement!
I got to show them through the process. They were really a fun bunch of gentlemen! Here they are reading some of the words of a probate record that had an interesting entry!
You can see how intently they watched as I showed them how the images were captured and what had to be done with the computer. Each of them got a chance to try their hand at the digitising!
Also of interest was the way inwhich the data is transferred back and forth to Salt Lake City. Here they are getting a review of the shuttle process.
As a special treat, Fiona took us all on an extensive tour of the Archives. There are volumes and volumes of various type documents!
Here Don and Fiona are discussing the Land and Property records. You can see that some of the books are pretty tattered. In some instances they are over 150 years old showing the original land grants after the treaties with the Moari tribal leaders.
These books are kept in climate controled rooms so that the deterioration is managed as best as possible. They are kept in two or thee rooms just like this and patrons have access to them. They are one of the more valuable and "information rich" documents in the Archives!
There are three floors of document storage similar to what you see here. The records go on and on! Many of these are probates that will eventually be digitised on our project!
Here's an example of storage for larger items. In this case, it's large WWI and WWII pictures that are stored in the large framed pull-out trays! We got to see some of them and they were a treasure!
The long item at the left is actually a street sign. It was the longest of it's type with the old Moari name on the sign. It was nearly 20' in length. Now you try and pronounce the name. I'm not going to write it here because it would not fit across the screen!
As a final treat we got to see the treaty between the British government and the Moari chiefs that dated back to the middle of the 19th century! The document below shows an image put on the treaty to represent the various tribes of the Moari Chiefs. It was a real treat to see!
====================================================================
Everything below this line was posted prior to 2012
We've been asked a number of times if our work at the Archives is boring. Honestly, at times it might seem to get that way, but when you really consider what we're working on there are a number of interesting findings. As example, below are two such examples:
Those of you in scouting know who Lord Baden-Powell is...the founder of Boy Scouts. Well, who would have guessed that we'd come across the probate record of his sister-in-law while working on the Napier probates. Below are a couple of the documents we digitised for Florence Sydney Baden-Powell.
Here's another example of interesting records. Going through the 1915-1919 period of time we came across a number of probates of New Zealand soldiers that had lost their lives while serving in France during WWI. We even came across a couple that were killed in Gillipoli, Turkey where the Austrailians and New Zealanders really suffered unreal casualties. Nearly 75% of those from New Zealand were either killed or wounded in this loosing effort! The record below is not from Gillipoli, but one at random from France. It's interesting because it included a letter from the King & Queen of England. Not something that you always see.
Well, I couldn't go very long without trying to understand just how big this project in Wellington really is. The chart below represents all the records that need to be digitised. Top to bottom there are 8 different Court areas. Those in green have been completed by the Ditchburns and sister VanCleave and Pulu. Our color will be pink and we hope to finish Napier by late spring. Then across the bottom of the chart are the 8 different Court areas with bar graphs above representing how many records are in each court. The smallest is Blenheim at the top with 9,800 records and the largest shoots up the right side of the chart and represents Wellington. Each little block represents 1,000 probates completed and a probate contains some 15 records so doing 1,000 probates requires digitising about 15,000 records. We hope to complete some 40 to 50 blocks of 1,000 or some 750,000 records digitised between the Overton's and McVey's.
WOW!!!
This represents just how large the chart is that we printed off into 16 different pages and taped them together. We use it as a working document coloring in sections and blocks as they are completed.
Mike Higgins from Auchland is our direct supervisor. He supervises the Island area and is responsible for getting contracts signed with the various archive repositories for missionaries to scan.
Danny Chin comes from Hong Kong and works for "Family Search". He's the tech specialist and really knows how the software works. We get to see him only once or twice during our missions. He's responsible for the entire Pacific and Asian areas.
Mike and Danny took the entire group of us out to a very nice lunch just prior to the Ditchburns and Lupe were released. It was a good time to chill out a little and enjoy each others' company!
Every now ant then you're presented with special challenges. Here's a packet of records that have been tightly bound for decades. They will present a difficult time straightening out and digitising.
Sure enough once you open the bundle the records are in all sort of decay and parts are even missing. These will take about a week to flatten and then will be difficult to take pictures of them.
Here Roy and Tom are digitising and having a good time just prior to Roy, Lorraine and Lupe coming to an end of their missions.
Below this point everything was
posted prior to 17 Oct 2011
Our specific assignment while on our mission is to work at "Archives New Zealand" digitising probate records. This repository is the largest of it's kind in New Zealand. It is located at 10 Mulgrave Street and its web site is http://www.archives.govt.nz/. Over 4,000,000 records representing 70 kilometers of shelving are kept here including the only remaining copies of treaties signed with the tribes that occupy New Zealand. These include treaties with the Mauri's and other tribes dating back to the early 1800's. Other records are kept on file documenting almost 200 years of New Zealand history.
Archives New Zealand has set out to digitise as many of these records as possible and 18 months ago Family Search, the genealogical arm of the LDS church, signed an agreement to assist in the digitising project by doing all the probate records on file. We along with another couple (Don & Kathy Overton from St. George) who arrived the 5th of September are replacing a local couple (Roy and Lorraine Ditchburn) and two sister missionaries from the states (Lynne Van Cleave and Lupe Pulu). Between the first missionaries assigned to the project and ourselves we should complete about 40% of the project at hand. Below is a pictorial review of the work we do five days a week, nearly 8 hours a day.
Published records that our project is making available can be found at the link below...
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1865481
Here's how Archives New Zealand is situated in Wellington. The building is just behind the large one on the pier. There are two large fixures on it's top and it sits just about in the middle of this picture. A beige strip runs the length of the building about 3/4 of the way up.
Ann and Tom standing outside Archives New Zealand at 10 Mulgrave Street, Wellington.
Ann waiting outside the doors to our "Digi Lab" which is located between the 1st and 2nd floors of the building.
Here's the inside of our "Digi Lab". You can see Ann, Lorraine and Lupe preparing documents and Roy digitising records. Tom's digitising station is directly behind Ann.
Probate records are brought to us by staff from Archives in boxes similar to those held here by Sarah McClintock.
Each of the boxes contains envelopes shown here by Ann. Each of the envelopes contains the probate record for a single individual.
Here's a sample box of those probate records.
The records brought down to us are listed on pink sheets that are used by those digitising the record to help identify who's on the record and its appropriate numbering. Here Lorraine is recording that information.
The envelopes are opened and the documents removed. In many instances these documents are over 100 years old and haven't been handled since they were placed in the envelopes.
Some of these documents are physically very large but in poor condition. They have to be handled with significant care! Here Ann displays a large sample.
In almost every situation, the records have been folded for decades and to digitise them they have to be flattened. Here Lupe works carefully flattening records.
The documents can also be wrinkled and water damaged. In that case you've got to carefully make as much as possible visible to the cameras.
The unfolded documents are then arranged on large white blotter paper and stacked. Between each set of blue sheets is a persons comeplete probate record.
The records are laid out on the blotter paper in a certain order so that the will is digitised first and then all the supporting documentation.
The sheets are stacked under heavy plywood boards and placed on shelves where they stay for up to a week prior to being digitised. This process leaves the documents pretty flat when the camera operator digitises them.
Here's one of the two digitising stations in our "Digi Lab". You can see the screen on the left where the captured documents are shown. They are placed under glass and then copied.
Here's an up close photo of one of our cameras. They are very technical and the lenses are 16 mega pixel. You focus them prior to starting a new box of records. The process includes a number of steps that insure the most accurate copy is captured.
Here Tom is digitising records at his camera station. Documents are moved from the box on his right, digitised and placed in the box on the left.
Here are Roy and Lupe at Roy's camera station. They are the experts having captured over 200,000 records during their 18 months on the job. Roy's wife Lorraine is in the background recording records.
Once the digitising is completed, the documents are removed from the blotter paper in preparation to be put back into the envelopes and boxes. Here are Ann and Lorraine accomplishing this task.
The documents must be re-folded and placed back in the same order they were in when removed.
Here Ann and Lorraine place documents back into their envelopes where they might never be removed again.
The completed boxes are kept on shelves until retrieved by Archives New Zealand staff and replaced with boxes of records that haven't been digitised.
For our lunch-time we have access to the "Tea Room" of the Archives. We have a great view of the port of Wellington.
Watching over us as we work are two pieces of art that Lynne VanCleave painted one Saturday to sort of liven up the place. Here a Kiwi is on the lookout.
I have no idea what kind of bird this is, but it's pretty intimidating watching out over the top of us.
