Finding a location

There are several ways to find a location to work on. 

• You can type a place name into the "enter a location" box on the homepage and click the "Go" button
• You can click the "Find my location" button which will use information from your browser to identify your locality and take you there. N.B. If you have deliberately turned off the setting for location tracking on your browser this option will not work
• You can zoom and pan the map window. The slider bar in the top right corner of the screen can be moved to the left side to see a modern OpenStreetMap view to help you orientate yourself. Move the slider back to the right to see the historical map again
• If you have already done some transcriptions go to your profile page by clicking on your name in the top menu bar. On the left is a list of "Recent Places". Click on the "Show on Map" link next to one of these transcriptions and you will return to the map location where you were last working

Adding a new place-name (or other text item)

Login to the system and click "Transcribe" on the top menu bar. Then simply click on the map under the first letter of the text. You will then be asked to type in the text exactly as it appears on the map. You can also tell us about any alternative names you call this place, and how you know of them. In addition you can record any memories or make extra comments you have about this place. If you make a mistake during transcription just click on the cross in the right hand corner of the transcription box to cancel. Once you click on “Done” in the transcription box, or hit the carriage return key, a brown marker will be added to the map where you originally clicked, and it will be added to your list of “My Transcriptions”. Please note you cannot edit a marker once you have submitted it.

Confirm other names

To make our work reliable, we need every name to be identically transcribed by two different volunteers, so we need you to also confirm transcriptions by others. All markers needing confirmation show up as green except to people who have already transcribed a name for that marker. Just click on the green marker, and add your reading of the text — and you can also add any memories, alternative names or comments you have.  Click on “Done” and the marker will change colour: to Purple if your transcription matches an existing one, to Brown otherwise — the name you transcribed is permanently stored, and when another volunteer transcribes the name and it matches one of the existing transcriptions that version will become the confirmed name.

Profile and Rankings

Once you are logged in, your name will appear at the top of the page. Click on your name to see your profile page, which lists your ten most recent transcriptions and gives you shortcuts to their locations on the map. It lists the total number of transcriptions you have added and the number you have confirmed. Where you are in the overall ranking of volunteers is determined by the lowest of these two numbers as we need you to do roughly equal numbers of initial transcriptions and confirmations. This page also lists our top ten volunteers, so if you start making a big contribution your name will show up here. You can refresh your browser window to update your transcription and confirmation counts as you go, but note you may need to click the "Transcribe" button in the top menu bar again if you return to adding new transcriptions after doing this.

There are a series of Frequently Asked Questions and Answers in the Knowledge Base part of the support site to help you further. If you cannot find the answer to your GB1900 question, please either "Submit a ticket" using this support site system or contact us on gb1900org -at- gmail.com.

Thank-you for volunteering to help with GB1900.