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Time for some paper napkin calculations. I took 2 minutes to transcribe this record. The record is not typewritten, and my timing was probably typical for me. The record is a bit blurry making some of the writing hard to make out. Not 100% confident on all names. Being generous, lets say a typewritten record takes about 1 minute. I have not figured out a way to have all of the record visible at once with the writing large enough so I can transcribe all fields in order, tabbing from one to the next. I am always moving the record this way and that to transcribe. Hence, I cannot finish a typewritten record as quickly as previous MSA marriage record projects. Lastly, A rough guess is that 80% - 90% of the records are handwritten. I do not have inside info. These are just my own guesstimates and observations. Maybe having a dual screen set-up, or a larger screen would help my speed. Don't really have a good set-up for that.

This leads to my next guesstimate. Using an 80/20 split of handwritten to typewritten, it will take 9000 hours of transcriber time to finish the project. MSA may have better access to FromThePage (FTP) statistics on time spent to transcribe. 9000 hours roughly equates to one full-time person working on the project for 4+ years. You can further extrapolate from there.

I do not think much can be done to speed the rate of transcription of individual records. My conclusion, this project needs more transcription help. It is huuuuuge, says Mr. Obvious. 275K records says it all, with no calculations necessary.

I am not deterred, and I hope others are not, and continue to contribute their efforts.