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Archiver > AZORES > 2001-08 > 0996932778


From: "TerryO at work" <>
Subject: [AZORES-L] Extracting data
Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2001 09:53:51 -0400
References: <20010803140500.14964.qmail@web13308.mail.yahoo.com>


While all your suggestions about extracting data: how easy it is to learn
the format of documents, how all the priests used the same terminology, how
eventually one can figure it out-- All this is true, but there is one point
no one has addressed.

Despite the fact that LDS has the microfilm for "my" island, our local LDS
is only open one night a week for 3 hours, and the waiting list to use the
16 mm viewer is so long that one cannot have access to it every week, more
likely once every six weeks. While they are open for two hours two mornings
a week, I don't know what everyone else does with their time, but I still go
to work every day.

It is true that one eventually learns how to extract much of the data, but
the sheer inaccessibility of the records, unless you live in an area where
LDS has lots of centers and is open a lot of hours, is overwhelming. I
ordered the Altares microfilms two years ago. I "extended" them 4 times and
never had enough time on the viewer to extract more than two.

This is why I rely on the kindness of friends and of professional
researchers to get the data for me and to extract it as well.

Terry Ostrach

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