Indexing, family history one step at a time

So I am totally excited about indexing, which might sound a little weird to some, but it's true. A few months ago in the August 2007 Ensign there was an article about indexing family history records from your home computer, but since I was very technologically limited at the time it wasn't something I could be anything more than interested in. But Christmas came and, voila, I am now equipped to help bring more family history opportunities to others.

Basically what indexing involves are records that have been photographed or microfilmed from all over the world. After downloading a program from familysearch.org you, the indexer, look at these great, sometimes handwritten, records and type what you read into little boxes. This is an example of a page from the 1871 Canadian Census currently being worked on through the indexing program.

I got started today about 4:00, downloaded the program, went through the online tutorials, and indexed and submitted 42 names and information about people listed on a page of the 1850 Kentucky census. It was amazing to see the way the families were organized. There was one family with 42 year old parents that had 8 kids, with of course a set of twins in the middle. And then the very last entry was for a newlywed couple. He was 23 and she was 17. Farming in the middle of Kentucky. What amazing history right in front of my eyes.

One of my goals is to do more family history work for my ancestors. But it does take a lot of time and effort to get to know all the programs and websites and what work has been done, etc. etc. But this is immediate gratification. I can do something right now. I'm sorry if this has turned into some kind of cheesy commercial for indexing, but really I'm excited! I no longer have to feel guilty for not being involved in this amazing work! Hurray for indexing!

If you want more information go to either the LDS church website: http://www.lds.org/ and search for the August 2007 Ensign article on indexing, or go directly to http://www.familysearchindexing.org/.

If any of you have done this before, or if you try it, let me know how it goes!