FamilySearch - Record Search and Indexing

This is "old" news but Shirley Richison Fields, the coordinator of the Indiana Marriage Indexing project (being done in conjunction with FamilySearch) spoke at the monthly meeting of the Genealogical Society of Whitley County on June 21st. She went through the process of signing up for the project and did a great job of demonstrating the process of downloading a batch and doing the actual indexing. I signed up in February but have only indexed a little over a hundred images so far but am planning to get back to it in the near future. It only takes 30-45 minutes per batch at most. I see this as an opportunity to "pay back" all those who have helped me in the past and contribute something as well.

There have been a few glitches, such as indexers catching up with the images, and arbitrators not keeping up with the indexers but so far there have been more than 250,000 records indexed!

At the link above there is a "Roll of Honor" listing the volunteers who have either indexed or arbitrated more that 5,000 records. There is also a table of statistics showing how many records have been indexed and arbitrated since the project began in late December 2006.

If you don't want to work on the Indiana Marriages, there is a list of other projects at FamilySearch Indexing. Some of the projects, like the Indiana Marriages, you have to sign up for the specific project, but others are "open" and you can work on any of them if you sign up through FamilySearch.

Speaking of FamilySearch, I signed up with the FamilySearch Labs Record Search pilot program yesterday morning. You can read about this opportunity at Dear Mytrle where I first read about it. Just as I was about to retire for the night last night I checked my email. Lo and behold, there was a message from FamilySearch Labs with instructions on how to sign in and access the Record Search area. Of course I had to check it out and take the challenge they give you. I'm not sure how much we're supposed to talk about this, but I will say this - WOW! Everything is so quick. The images I looked at appeared onscreen fast (compared to some other sites) and it was really easy to navigate through a series of images. This is going to be an AMAZING resource! Three hours later, about 2 a.m. this morning, I finally decided to go to bed. It's a good thing that I don't have to go to work anymore!

Updated at 7:35 p.m. Tuesday 06/26: The "confidentiality" clause included with the initial email from FamilySearch for the Record Search Pilot Program has been "sort of" lifted according to Dear Myrtle. She has a comprehensive posting on how the Record Search site works and what information is available. She nailed it! I had so much fun playing with it Sunday night. I did have an issue with saving the images but reported it immediately and then first thing Monday morning had an email from FamilySearch stating they were looking into the problem. As Myrt said, if they can make it so you can copy/paste the full transcription, that will make it even more awesome. Thanks Myrt!