Cut off Cards

When a person doesn't know what a record is supposed to look like, it can be difficult to determine just what is missing. In fact, sometimes it can be difficult to determine if anything is missing at all. The World War I draft card below is for my uncle, John Goldenstein. It is missing something.

World War I Draft Card of John Goldenstein, Adams County, Illinois--obtained on Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), 4 December 2012

 When this card is compared to a "complete" card (see below), one can see the signature after item 12 on the left hand side. It appears that the right hand side of the card in the image above also has some issues. I've left feedback at Ancestry.com about the images (the problem appears to be with cards from Adams County, Illinois), but it is difficult to tell how long it will be before the images are fixed. The digitization of the cards from the microfilm is an automated process.

World War I Draft Card of Samuel Haase, Hancock County, Illinois--obtained on Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com), 4 December 2012

The card above appears to be a complete card.

And it all reiterates the point of citation: not all versions of a record are created equally.