Saturday, March 2, 2013

Kim found the answer + other problems with FOLD3


REPLY TO QUESTION ABOUT DOWNLOADING MULTIPLE PAGES

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We came across the following email from you and wanted to provide an answer. Currently images can only be downloaded or printed one at a time and there is not an option to mass download or print.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Thanks again,

Gordon Atkinson

Director of Customer Service and Marketing

Fold3


This makes FOLD3 close to worthless unless you have an unlimited amount of time to waste waiting for your pages to come in one at a time.

There is another problem.  

When you get a hit and open the page there is often a note at the bottom of the page saying "nn (some number) of pages in this document contain matches".  If you're unaware of that you will miss all of the pages beyond the first one in that Vol.

At the bottom of the thumbnail for the first page there will be other thumbnails indicating the other pages available.

Say the PA Archives, Series 5 Vol XI pages 345, 732, 815.  Page 345 will be enclosed in a box, clicking on the box brings that page up.  

Clicking on "LARGER" expands the page to full size and  you can then click "DOWNLOAD".  

When the first page is downloaded you go back ;and click on the second page, 732.  That page comes up and  clicking "LARGER" expands it to full size.  Now click "DOWNLOAD" and the page reverts to  page 345. 

As far as I know there is only one way to get that page to print, you must scroll to it  using the film strip.

When there is a big jump from the first page to the second it is laborious to use that film strip and if you lay on the left or right film strip arrow you will often shoot way past your target page.

My solution, unless the page numbers are close together,  is to make a note of the Series, Volume and Page numbers that you're not able to easily get to and then  go back and pick up the extra pages through the BROWSE feature.  

BROWSE: You enter the 'Revolutionary War' section then select 'Pennsylvania Archives' and then the Series and Volume.  You will be shown several sections in that volume.  Page numbers are not shown so you have to click various sections until you find the section that has the page you want.

Now your extra pages will come up and can be downloaded.

The PA Archives is a wonderful resource so it's worth learning how to use it if you have anybody who ever lived in Pennsylvania.

I give all of the pages I download from the PA the name "Series 5 Vol II Page nnn".  By doing that you will have a folder with all of the pages you have downloaded in their proper order.  When you get another hit you can quickly scroll down the folder (in DETAIL mode) and see whether you've already downloaded that page.

Please let me know of any problems you encounter or anything I have written that turns out to be wrong.  I'm feeling my way with FOLD3 and am not terribly impressed however,  I think the PA Archives alone is worth the trouble.

What do you think?

Jerry

PS  Looking at the film strip, there are little red numbers on some pages. That number is the number of annotations for that page.  I've never found anything useful in them.


Friday, March 1, 2013

Wrestling with FOLD3

I've spent the day wrestling with Fold3.  My conclusion is that it is the hardest web site to use that I've ever encountered.

I started by searching for all of the Shearer surname, all variations.

I have 200 hits from the Pennsylvania Archives that I'm working on.

One of the hits was the Revolutionary War Pension file for Conrad  Goodner, husband of Elizabeth Sherer.  What a find, the record was 65 pages.  I set about looking for a way to download the entire record.  No way!

After struggling with it for a while I put in a phone call to Kim Dolce at the City Island Library.  Kim is conducting lessons on Fold3 but she had no answer.  She promised to find out the answer.

So far, there is no known way to accomplish the objective.

Giving up I set out to download the pages one at a time.  It is a VERY SLOW process.  The site keeps flashing the  WE'RE SORRY IT IS TAKING SO LONG TO PULL UP THE METADATA FOR THIS IMAGE.  It took me about 3 hours to download 65 pages.  I had to restart the site several times to get it to process my requests. The only thing running on my computer was my browser.

On the other hand, when I finally got the record there were some jewels in those pages.  Here's one of the best surprises I've ever found in such records:


September 25, 1934

Mittie L. Prather
Onawa, Iowa [Monona Co.]

Madam;     

 I have to advise you that from the papers in the Revolutionary War pension claim R. 4113 it appears that Conrad Goodner was born Novemer 29, 1756.     

While living in Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolinan (sic) he enlisted  November 1, 1776 and served nine months  as a private in Captain John Griffy's Company, Colonel Thackston's North Carolina Regiment.     

He was allowed pension on his application executed June 3, 1833 while a resident of Saint Clair County, Illinois. 

 He died August 27, 1837     

Soldier married in 1782 in Guilford County, North Carolina, Elizabeth ________* who died April 12, 1839 leaving the following children:

John Goodner
Sally Browning.
David Goodner born in 1786.
Jacob Goodner born July 3, 1790.
James Goodner born February 8, 1792.
Jane Ann or Jeanan Goodner born January 9, 1794
Benjamin Goodner born June 4, 1795
Godfrey Goodner born in February 1798.
Francis A. Goodner.
Elijah Goodner.
Elisabeth Holcomb.

            Respectfully,

           Acting Commissioner

* From another source: Sherrer/Scherer