Every genealogist has found useful records online, whether on a commercial site or one that offers records and indexes for free. Most of us are thrilled to find birth records, obituaries, census data, and more with just a few clicks of the mouse. When we stop to think about the people who pored over those old records, transcribed them, and then provided workable indexing, most of us are grateful for their labors.
FamilySearch Indexing – Volunteer Opportunities
One of the best of the free sites is FamilySearch.org, the undertaking of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Long known for their huge stocks of microfilmed records available in Salt Lake City and at local Family History centers, the church is now digitizing many of these microfilmed records. Volunteers, not necessarily church members, are helping in that work, and more volunteers are being recruited all the time.
Anyone who would like to be part of the Worldwide Indexing project is welcome to join. They even provide a quick “test drive” that lets you see how simple indexing can be. There are currently 40,000 registered indexers, though it’s likely that not all of them are actively working.
Indexing Projects from Around the World
Projects are underway from countries around the world, and include records in many different languages. Using a list of current projects, Indexers can choose the records they wish to work on. For example, those especially interested in parish records from Bristol, England, or county marriages in Alabama (1809-1950), will find projects to index. Tithe Applotment Books for Ireland (1824-1840), Church of English Parish Baptisms (1664-1880) from Jamaica, and Cape Province, South Africa Church Records (1660-1970) are also available for indexing.
Opportunities abound for speakers of other languages, too. Polish speakers may wish to work on indexing the Lublin Diocese Church Books (1902–1945), and those familiar with Swedish could index Church Records from Uppsala. There are projects ongoing from almost every state in the U.S., as well as records from Canada, Mexico, South America, and both Western and Eastern Europe. Records currently being indexed may appear in English, Belgian, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese, Czech, German, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans, Dutch, or Flemish. Records in other languages may eventually be part of the program.
How the Program Works
Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can volunteer. The work is done at your own home, at any time you choose. A batch of records (from 10 to 50, depending on the project) can be quickly downloaded to your own machine. You can index the whole batch at once, or spread it out over a week. FamilySearch suggest that each batch should take about half an hour.
Once you have completed a batch, those records are compared with duplicate work by another indexer, and any differences are resolved. This ensures that indexing is done correctly, even if the document is hard to read. Once the records have been indexed and verified, the images are made available on the FamilySearch pilot program called Record Search. Eventually those records will become part of the regular offerings on the main FamilySearch site.
For other genealogical volunteer opportunities, see Volunteering in Genealogy: Opportunities for Giving Back. For more personal ways to give back, see Ten Lasting Ways to Honor Your Ancestors.
Katharine Garstka - Katharine Garstka specializes in genealogical research and in historical and genealogical writing.
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