If you can read this:
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Then you are needed!
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What is Indexing? It is simply viewing digitized documents on your personal computer and typing what you see. The information provided by Indexers becomes part of a searchable database for people seeking information on their ancestors. Indexing is one of the reasons that family history research has become so doable. It is a ways and means that the work is hastening.
I love doing family history research and projects. But there was a time not too many years back, that I didn't feel I could devote the resources I needed to my own family research. Instead I Indexed. I spent many, many hours while recovering from surgery with my laptop. It was a great experience. It was exciting, sometimes tedious, sometimes frustrating, but always rewarding. I truly felt that my time spent Indexing was well spent.
After I was able to return to my own family research, I began to really understand the value of those Indexed records. My father had "done" our family's four generations back in the 1980's. But I felt impressed to go back and review each of those families. His heritage is in Scotland. The records he had access to in the 1980's consisted of the "Selected Scottish Birth Records". It was a microfilmed database that had been extracted. That means the Church had been given permission to photograph those records and make them available on rolls of film for researchers to view. Dad did a great deal of work and to the quick glance, one would assume those families were complete.
However, I now have available to me through Indexed records: Scottish Birth, Marriage & Death records dating back into the 1700's and census records dating into the 1800's. As I have compared those families to the new records accessible to me, I have found missing children, missing grandchildren, and missing spouses. I am truly grateful for the efforts of the Indexing volunteers that make my research and discoveries possible.
If you're looking for a good Sabbath activity - a good way to participate in family history - a good way to help hasten the work of salvation - Consider becoming an Indexer.
Go to familysearch.org and click on Volunteer to learn more!
-Lorie Pierce
I love doing family history research and projects. But there was a time not too many years back, that I didn't feel I could devote the resources I needed to my own family research. Instead I Indexed. I spent many, many hours while recovering from surgery with my laptop. It was a great experience. It was exciting, sometimes tedious, sometimes frustrating, but always rewarding. I truly felt that my time spent Indexing was well spent.
After I was able to return to my own family research, I began to really understand the value of those Indexed records. My father had "done" our family's four generations back in the 1980's. But I felt impressed to go back and review each of those families. His heritage is in Scotland. The records he had access to in the 1980's consisted of the "Selected Scottish Birth Records". It was a microfilmed database that had been extracted. That means the Church had been given permission to photograph those records and make them available on rolls of film for researchers to view. Dad did a great deal of work and to the quick glance, one would assume those families were complete.
However, I now have available to me through Indexed records: Scottish Birth, Marriage & Death records dating back into the 1700's and census records dating into the 1800's. As I have compared those families to the new records accessible to me, I have found missing children, missing grandchildren, and missing spouses. I am truly grateful for the efforts of the Indexing volunteers that make my research and discoveries possible.
If you're looking for a good Sabbath activity - a good way to participate in family history - a good way to help hasten the work of salvation - Consider becoming an Indexer.
Go to familysearch.org and click on Volunteer to learn more!
-Lorie Pierce
