Transcription of the name field by volunteers is already in progress. We started with names because they are the most useful for finding people, and among the most difficult for automatic handwriting transcription software to read. We will be adding additional fields soon when we are comfortable with the transcription workflow. We will also add an interface for users to submit corrections.
A few fields (name, relation, sex, age, age-at-first-marriage) have been processed automatically to provide the initial
search functionality for the 48 states of the 1930 census. Because we started with very few human-transcribed examples to train the system with, the accuracy is somewhat lower than human volunteers can do, particularly on the name field. As more human transcripts become available to train the system with, automatic transcription will improve.
Many images are already on the server, however not all uploaded images are set up for transcription yet. If you are familiar with census records and would like to help set up images that are already online (especially for your own areas of interest), please
contact us and we will help you get started. For locations that do not have images online yet, you might consider
sponsoring the data for that location– we give higher priority to getting images uploaded and set up for sponsored locations than for unsponsored locations.
Alaska, Hawaii, and other territories used different census forms in 1930 than the 48 states did, and we have not processed those yet. Also, we do not yet have access to images for 8 of the 2,667 rolls of microfilm for the 1930 census, so those are not yet available to search or transcribe. The missing roll numbers are: 178 in CA, 306 in FL, 670 in IA, 914 in MA, 1652 in NY, 1688 in NC, 1896 in OK, and 2618 in WI. The counties on each microfilm roll are listed in this
PDF file.