[Genealib] FW: VOLUNTEER INDEXING PROJECT at The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Archives

[Sarah Kirby]

Wee hoo! What a great project. Thought folks might like to know.

VOLUNTEER INDEXING PROJECT 
What does a Swedish survivor from the steerage section of the Titanic
have
to do with records in the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County
Archives? August Wennerstrom represents one 1912 Naturalization record
found
during data entry to create an Index of these records for the Clerk's
Archive. 
The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Archives is managing a
significant Indexing and Preservation project, funded by a grant from
the
National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). 
The Archives is home to more than 500,000 naturalization records
covering
the years 1906 to 1929. More than 400,000 of these records are
Declarations
of Intention, which were the first papers to be filed by those who
wished to
become U.S. citizens. Currently, though, it is difficult to locate
individual Declaration entries for researchers coming to the Archives. 
To address this problem and to assist our users of Archive records, the
Project will create an Index of the Declarations of Intention.
Volunteers
have been recruited from throughout Cook County for this work and as of
this
month they have indexed over 100,000 records. 
For individuals interested in Archive or Indexing experience, our
project
offers that opportunity. The Volunteer task is to enter data from the
original Declarations of Intention books into 12 database fields. The
Declaration forms were originally handwritten by clerks and a challenge
for
volunteers is to decipher turn-of-the-century handwriting. 
The actual indexing takes place downtown at the Richard J. Daley Center.
In
general, volunteers will index in three-hour shifts at least once a week
during the project, although we try to accommodate individual schedules.
Hours for indexing are Monday - Friday, 8:30 - 4:00. 
Interested parties should contact Phil Costello at 312-603-6601 or
Jeanie
Child at 312-603-6628. 
As for Mr. Wennerstrom, we found through further research that after
arriving in New York aboard the Carpathia, he traveled to Chicago, where
he
filed a Declaration of Intention through the Circuit Court of Cook
County.
At the Salvation Army in Chicago, he met his future wife and they moved
together to Culver, IN, where he became a gardener and later
superintendent
of buildings and grounds at Culver Military Academy. They had seven
children. 

____________________
Sarah A. V. Kirby, MLIS | Research Associate
ENVIRON International Corporation | www.environcorp.com
<http://www.environcorp.com/>  8725 W. Higgins Road, Suite 725| Chicago,
Illinois 60631
V: 773-272-3521| F: 267-295-7384 | skirby at environcorp.com 


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