Wednesday, January 6, 2010

My Favorite Volunteer Project.... Family Search Indexing

Family Search Indexing is absolutely the greatest project in my way of thinking, nothing opinionated here.   
I love helping others find their ancestors, especially those that are hard to find.  I find that helping index the records that are now being offered for free on Family Search Labs is opening doors for many who were not able to find the information before.  They have a blog that keep you upto date on the newest work being done.



I was researching on FamilySearch.org and they were asking for volunteers.  It did not matter if you were a member of their church or not.  They were looking for people who were willing to put in as many hours as they desired to complete projects they had to make information available to others over the internet.  I started out doing 2 hours a day for 6 months, but I now only do about 2 hours a week because I work at a Family History Center as a Family History Consultant and in the community now to assist others in their searches. I have indexed about 10,000 records so far.  I hope to add to that this year.  
They still need as many as will volunteer to continue to index.  There is still a huge number of records to be processed. There are so many interesting records to offer your skill to; you can even help with some that are in different language if you have the skill.   I find it has been helpful to understand the indexing process.  I caught how a mistake was made in an index on Ancestry.com because I knew the process of the forms used in the indexing methods.

Volunteering is just part of me, because volunteering and service are synonymous.  The best part of life is giving service.  I love it and I hope I am always able to give it!

6 comments:

  1. I'm a big fan of Family Search Indexing as well. I do a batch when I'm watching tv, or to clear my head between genealogy writing projects. I am almost to 10,000. What's surprised me the most is how much indexing has helped me read others' handwriting. I've learned a new skill that often comes in handy in genealogy research.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I too have done many batches and also became a mediator for transcriptions that don't match up.
    Great asset for researchers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I LOVE volunteers, and they seldom are thanked enough!

    so

    THANK YOU ALL!!

    (not participating in this program (YET), was a volunteer at a LDS FHC for a number of years, it is such a great program too!

    Congrats, 10,000 and almost 10,000! WAHHOOOOO

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good for you Hummer. At the present the only genealogy based volunteer work I do is for findagrave. It is good exercise walking the cemeteries. The reward is when I hear from a relation who has found one of my listings and photograph. Perhaps I should look into Family Search since it is much too cold to do cemetery work now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with the other comments, Hummer! You are doing an invaluable service. Thank you. Thanks, also, for the great post.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You're right, it's an important project. Thank you for helping out with it so others can benefit!

    ReplyDelete