For this blog entry I am going to write about something a little different. I have just updated my Wiltshire OPC Work Diary/Journal in which I list on a day to day basis a list of items that I would like to try to work on for that particular day. Each day consists of around 30 items.
The diary consists of items that have been started and those still to be looked at or researched. Each item on the page will refer to a folder and within that folder will be items specific to a parish or a subject – some may be empty others may contain hundreds of items that we have gathered from various sources and submissions. Each of these has to be prepared for publication with checks made for possible copyright issues and other issues such as “living subject” rules. They also need to be checked for duplication or whether they item can be added to existing published documents.
At this moment in time I have enough work based on around 30 items daily to keep me busy until the end of August 2026. I have 364 parish and subject folders plus 40 folders containing items that have been submitted by individuals including OPCs, Transcribers and Other Members.
Sometimes I can work for 12 hours per day on the website, sadly however these last few months I am having to limit my time a bit more as I have cataract development and dry eye syndrome which means my eyesight isn’t sharp enough to keep going for long periods.
Other people submit items via John Pope as he works on his Census Project and his processing of photographs and information pieces he picks up on his many trips to the county as well as helping me out with more complicated transcripts. Sadly too John is beginning to limit his time on his trips to the county for the foreseeable future.
John and I are also working on re-transcribing items that we have had access to in the past but for various reasons have been removed from our website.
Martin Barrett is continuing to work hard on the Military side of the website. Researching various battles and wider conflicts looking for casualties with a Wiltshire connection we now have in the region of 16300 to 16400 individuals listed on our We Will Remember Them List. These casualties are from conflicts spanning the English Civil War up to and including Afghanistan and other peace keeping missions of the present day. Within this list we include, casualties who were killed in action, died of wounds or illness, retired military personnel who we identify through obituaries or headstones, civilian deaths caused by enemy action either at home or abroad, also included are accidental deaths such as flying accidents, road accidents etc., illness whilst serving and training accidents and sadly incidents of suicide.
If someone submits items I add them to either a new folder if required or to the submitters individual folder and a new entry for that item and its submitter in the daily diary.
Those items that I don’t get around to on any one particular day get transferred to the end of the diary so that I have a chaotic rota in place. I try to prioritise the earliest items first but sometimes that doesn’t always work.
If you are waiting for items to be published please be patient with me – I will get to them at some point. However I am beginning to feel that I need to be more strict and try to be fair and concentrate more on the older items in the files.
Anyone can submit items at anytime but going forward they may have to be a little more patient to get the items published.
Thank you all for your interest and hard work – our users do appreciate what we are trying to achieve.
So finally – if anyone would like to volunteer to help with the workload and sort a few items then I would be your best friend forever.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
