Indexing: Lessons from the Trench

If there is anything that makes me pull my hair out it is indexing. I have tried or investigated a number of options:

• Buy a software program
• Use Microsoft Word
• Hire someone
• Use your in-program database
• Work with Artificial Intelligence
• Construct an index manually

I have investigated or even used some of these five options. Here are my observations, but there are some steps you need to think about first.

As the author, you need to think about what you have written and what you want to have indexed. A series of stories may require different indexing “rules” than an every person manuscript using an ahnentafel system of numbering. Each of the attached images have their own rules noted .

I recommend manually indexing a chapter or two, just to understand what the rules are that you want to use.

I have written two books now, and both were rather similar in their indexing principles. Each was a series of independent articles/chapters that were person focused. Each person of interest had their own chapter, but might be mentioned in another chapter.

I wanted a NAME list and a PLACE list. In genealogy we rarely index other words because usually your audience is searching for names and places. Next, you need to think about what granularity you want in the index. If you have multiple countries you might want to sort by Country > State > County > Town/Township or even farm name (important in Scandinavian countries).

Names can be trickier. If in one paragraph you talk about Sue and Ed Murphy and then on the next page talk about Sue and Ed or just Ed, you will need to make a decision as to whether the second entry even gets included. How will you manage references to women who change their name at marriage or immigration? What granularity will you index names? I decided not to do every person mentioned as I had hundreds of witnesses to baptisms who were never critical to the outcome.

For my books, I decided that the focus person of each chapter would appear in the index in bold. I would not index their name in their chapter. All name changes would also be indexed but would refer to the entry for the person of interest. Spelling variations (usually found in my footnotes) would not be indexed, nor would analytical tables, or summaries of any kind. I also decided that the primary person of interest name would be the one given at birth. You can make different decisions than these.

Let’s take a very quick look at each option.

INDEXING SOFTWARE: Unfortunately, these software programs are set up for scientists and not genealogists. All cost money, with a different pricing structures. Some even admit that the indexing process using their software will take hours and as a first time user, it may be days. First time users will spend a lot of time learning the system. None of these are as easy as the developer is touting.

There are several programs, but one that is relatively new on the market is TExtract. Another, I looked at pretty seriously was PDF Index Generator. A free product that she professionals use is Cindex

I have not used any of these but they intrigued me for a while.

MICROSOFT WORD INTERNAL INDEXER
This approach requires you to have your book in Word. You create your word list by going through your book and tagging desired words for your index. Here’s a YouTube video about how to use Word to index: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRFt34oXRDM

HIRE AN INDEXER
There are people who do this for a living. You may be tempted to have your book publisher do this as part of his fee but you ight investigate a local indexer first.

The website of the American Society of Indexers has a directory of indexers with contact information.

IN-PROGRAM INDEX
If you have dutifully recorded all your data into a genealogical program like RootsMagic or FamilyTreeMaker, and you want the kind of report they produce, then you can publish through them a reasonable documentation of your work, with footnotes and a name index and place index. Since I am working mostly with indirect evidence that necessitates looking at myriads of bits of information to make a conclusion, this option only works for me if I wish to get my direct evidence recorded on paper. This may, however, work for you.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLEGENCE
I tried using AI to do an index on my 330 page book. Although I am confident that AI will do this task easier in the future and that I probably had incomplete prompts, I do not think AI is ready for prime time yet. After eight hours I did have an index with page numbers, but it missed key people and key entry pages. There were at least 20 independent steps to get to a high-level index. To check its work I would require me to go through the book page by page to see if AI got it right–at each step. I decided that the rigor of checking AI at each step and still not getting it right was not worth it.

DO IT MYSELF
I decided to do it myself with on both books. An image of the first page of the name index is above and the image of the first page of the place index is to the left.

I stated my principles at the top, then used a table to standardize the format of the place and name hierarchy. The Place Index is a single table and they Name Index is a double column.

To get it to look like this you will need to master Section Breaks (continuous and next page).

No matter what system you use to index your book, you will want to review it closely for commissions, and errors of hierarchy.

Before I indexed my first book, I asked Elizabeth Shown Mills how she indexed Evidence Explained (600+ pages). I assumed she had the publisher do it. No, she did it manually and stated that no one else knew the nuances of the language she used and the challenges it would bring to indexing.

I wish you luck. There should be one take away—your book must have an index, if you want it to be useful to future generations.

Happy hunting!

Jill

What I have done since the last post: Thanksgiving was spent with the grandkids; Christmas and New Years celebrated quietly at home. Other than that—worked on the book, and then worked on it some more. I am doing a last read now before I publish a draft. I have designed the cover and worked on the back matter (indexes, fan charts etc.) I am worried that the images are too dark; we’ll see.