Yesterday I put out a call for transcription volunteers on FaceBook. I acquired 9GBs of images of the 1950 population census of Guam from the National Archives and Records Administration after its release on April 1, 2022.
I am elated by the number of people who have sent me their interest to volunteer and help transcribe the 1950 population census of Guam for the CHamoru Roots Genealogy Project. I am also floored by one particular notice of interest, which includes an on-going discussion of possibly some students becoming a part of this transcription project and credited as part of their curriculum. This was one of my visions with the CHamoru Roots Genealogy Project to make all this data available to young academic scholars so that they can write and publish our stories. I really hope this pans out for the students. The ultimate beneficiaries of the CHamoru Roots Genealogy Project are always our children’s children.
I am, however, still organizing the details for this particular transcription project, but hope to have it finalized within a week and then schedule Zoom sessions to orient all volunteer transcribers.
As you can see in the photo, there are 2,654 images. Generally, each enumerated district (ED) population sheet contains up to 25 lines of names and information. While some sheets are not all complete and some may even be blank, we still have a lot of transcription work to do. In fact, there are about 59,498 names that need to be transcribed. For now, I can say that the transcription work will consist of viewing each image and transcribing the data onto an Excel spreadsheet.
There are many other opportunities in this project. Although this project is driven primarily on love time, it remains alive as a result of donations, website subscribers and collaborations. I appreciate all of you who have helped in one way, shape or form to get this project where it is today.
