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Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 22:03:59 -0400
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From: "Daniel H. Weiskotten" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Newspaper back indexing
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        Several years ago while working at Lorenzo State Historic Site I made an
index of Cazenovia's first newspaper, _The Pilot_ (1808 to 1823).  Because
such an early "frontier" paper rarely had local news beyond foreclosures,
post office notices, and an obituary or two it was decided to focus on just
the local names for inclusion in the index.  I still ended up with over
2,200 names and nearly 10,000 entries.  Such projects are daunting and any
restictions you put on them impacts their value to all researchers.
        While I am certain I covered all instances of local (central upstate New
York) names I missed lots of stuf about Thomas Jefferson, and thousands of
other nationally important individuals.  Is there any methodology that
allows both completion of the project as well as global value, or do we
need to focus as I had done?  I did provide a detailed preface of my
methodology and acknowledgement of the shortcomings resulting therefrom.

        Dan Weiskotten
        (formerly from Cazenovia, now of The Library of Virginia, at Richmond!)