Your assistance is welcomed as a volunteer to index some of the world's primary genealogical records. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wants to help families locate the records for their families and has begun indexing a lot of vital records and census records.
If you are interested in volunteering your assistance with these indexing projects, check out the information and requirements at http://www.familysearchindexing.org/en/index.jsp.
FamilySearch Indexing is inviting ANYONE who wants to volunteer to do so. Volunteers are not required to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Projects are available for all experience levels. Some projects are labeled "easy" for volunteers who want to try indexing but are not yet ready to decipher census records' handwriting. Each project has links to information on how to transcribe and/or read the documents.
The software for the indexing process is installed over the internet for free. There are no other costs involved. Volunteers may work online or offline after the document is downloaded. Online training sessions and examples are included too. After finishing the online training session, a volunteer may print out a certificate to keep.
Projects are downloaded in small groups (ie., a page for a census, several pages for vital records). Volunteers have a week from the time of the project being downloaded to complete the work. If the page looks too difficult, volunteers may return them and request another one to index.
An easy indexing project currently being completed involves marriage records for counties of West Virginia. The indexer copies down the names of the groom and the bride and the year of the marriage. The name of the county is also added. In a few minutes, the indexer can complete the batch of approximately 20 couples and send the batch back to FamilySearch Indexing.
This past week I have enjoyed indexing several different types of records. The marriage index for West Virginia didn't take very long but the 1900 U.S. Federal Census pages took quite a bit more effort. Of course, it depended on whether or not the enumerator's handwriting for the census was easy to read. Sometimes it was a real struggle to determine what the enumerator was recording. Usually census pages have 50 lines on them but the page may or may not be completely full.
Some of the 1900 U.S. Federal Census projects available now are from the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, and Ohio. There are also some vital records to index -- marriage records from West Virginia and death records from the province of Ontario in Canada.
I figure volunteering to help with the indexing projects is one way to give back to FamilySearch. After all of the opportunities that the Church has given me to research and learn about my ancestry, a few minutes here and there is a way to return the favor to a small degree.
