Eileen and I have have been doing Indexing for www.familysearch.org. The definition of Indexing is - The process of capturing pertinent family history information from historical documents and making it available for publication on the Internet. Basically taking a paper document (most often handwritten) and turning it into a digital document. We started back in 2007 but I did not keep at it as the handwriting is often very difficult to decipher - very frustrating for me. Eileen loves to do it though, as can be attested to by the number of names she has indexed (over 97,200) and arbitrated (over 75,300). Another definition for you - Arbitrator - the person who does arbitration which is the process of reviewing differences between how two indexers interpreted a record. All records are indexed by two people. When there are differences between the two, then a third person (the arbitrator) has to review and decide what is correct.
The United States 1940 Census was recently released to the public, so there is a big push to get more indexers to make the records available quickly. Eileen and I are teaching a class this Sunday to help increase the number of indexers. By going to www.familysearch.org one can download the program and sign up to index on your home computer or laptop. I was hoping we could also do it on iPads or other tablets but so far the indexing program for the census only works on computers. I did find an iPad app for indexing that does other type of records. The one I tried today was a ship passenger record. They were extreemly difficult to read so not sure how much of those I will do. The 1940 Census is much easier to read.
Eileen had the added blessing of finding a missing great-grandmother while indexing the 1900 US Census.
2 comments:
I am half way through my first batch of the 1940 census. Our HP Group Leader did a presentation on Family Search Indexing for class this past Friday so I thought I would try it. I have only had one name so far that I was worried about, but entered it as best I can. This is a nice easing into the geneaology and quite enjoyable as well when taken in small bits. Our HP Group Leader says he logs in to Indexing and does at least 3-5 names every day before he checks his email or Facebook which I thought a decent practice so I am trying that as well.
Great idea - thanks for sharing.
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