If I Can Index, So Can You!

Have you heard about the Worldwide Indexing Event that started yesterday? The goal for the one week event is for 100,000 volunteers to index one record batch and help someone else do the same. Indexed records are what "fuel" FamilySearch.

FamilySearch Indexing

I am a very active user of FamilySearch and love all the new records that are being added daily. Because of my "very activeness" in doing my own family research and teaching others I have always felt like I didn't "have time" to index. Shocking I know! 

I love the indexed records and use them all the time, but felt like I didn't have the time to help contribute. I was also worried that it would be another thing to addict me and suck up more time. I am not very good at managing my own time ... balance issues. I give one thing all my time and then other areas of my life suffer, then I shift all the time to the suffering area and then another part starts to suffer. Working on time management and life focus is a constant struggle for me.

I wanted to learn "how to" index when the 1940 Census was being indexed in 2012. But, I procrastinated and what experts estimated should have taken a year to index was accomplished by thousands of volunteers in just four months! And because I procrastinated I didn't get a chance to participate.

Oh, I have done "indexing" before ... it was called "extraction" at the time ... like 15+ years ago. Huge boxes of transcribed cards that were arranged in batches. And I would take a batch and sit in front of a green screen computer monitor and enter the information from the cards. Then someone else would take that same batch and do it all over again. I still remember the project we were working on - British India records.

So today I put on my "Be Brave" hat and downloaded the Indexing Program from FamilySearch Indexing. In about 10-15 minutes I had watched a few video clips of instruction and entered a couple "test" records. And then I took a big breath and downloaded my first batch of records: Kentucky Death Certificates.

My goal for this week's event (August 7-14) was to index 100 records; which for the records I was working on was 10 batches of 10 records.

Then I got this email:

See what I mean by getting carried away and focusing on just one thing. In just a few hours today I met my entire week's goal! It didn't take much time at all.

In between grocery shopping, folding laundry, making lunch, and doing dishes, I managed to also do another 50 records. I'm still "NEW" to indexing, but today I made it possible for others to search for and find the death certificates for 150 people!

If I Can Index, So Can You!

FamilySearch Indexing
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Worldwide Indexing Event 2015

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