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
Facebook FamilySearch Indexing
Worldwide Indexing Event 2015

#FuelTheFind
#FamilySearchIndexing

My Relatives

Photo from LDS Media Library

My Relatives

Eleh Lenore Thompson Shumway Lazenby*

I am making a book of my treasures.

They are lovely and precious to me.

Records of special people,

Who go on my family tree.

There are ancestors, nieces and nephews,

Each in his place on our line,

And the things I find out about them,

Are mostly good and fine.

Each one has traits that endear him.

Things that set him apart,

From all other uncles or cousins,

And give him a place in my heart.

A place in my life and my memory ----

That no one can take away.

Who could have greater riches

Than these I have today?

*Eleh is the Great-granddaughter of Elisha Hurd Groves and Lucy Simmons Groves.
She is my 2C3R.

Memory Jogger Monday - August 3

Donald, Grandma Helen, Darlene, Dennis

Janice, Grandma Leola, Carol

Who were your aunts and uncles? Write about any of your aunts or uncles who really stand out in your mind. Give some details about them (names, personalities, events that you remember doing with them, and so on).

Okay, so first off the photos above are really old. They were ones that I thought of for this post.

First photo ... My father (Dennis) has two brothers and one sister. One brother, Ronald, died at birth. The other brother is Donald. Uncle Don is quite the character. I always remember him teasing me when I was younger. He married Peggy and they had two children. He is now married to Linda and she brings out the best in him.

I have the most memories of Aunt Darlene (Dar). I think this is because I lived with her for part of a year after college when I got my first full time job. She is very giving and caring. She married Brent and they have four children. My favorite thing about Dar is that she sends us a birthday card every year - all of us - even our spouses and our children. She is really good about keeping track of all of the descendants and where they live, their cell numbers, email addresses, and all our birth dates.

Second photo ... My mother (Carol) has only one sister; her name is Janice. Janice married John and they named all four of their children with names that start with "J". I remember going to their home in Stockton, California when we were younger and having Easter egg hunts and playing at the park. They moved to St. George, Utah in the early 1990's and I've had many opportunities to visit them and do things with them.

See this post for more information about "Memory Jogger Monday": 

Writing a Personal History or Keeping a Journal

We Must Prepare For Some Uphill Climbing

Photo from LDS Media Library

“We are going to make mistakes, but none of us can become an expert in family history work without first being a novice. Therefore, we must plunge into this work, and we must prepare for some uphill climbing. This is not an easy task, but the Lord has placed it upon you, and He has placed it upon me.” 

- President Thomas S. Monson, “Hastening the Work,” Ensign, June 2014.