Indexing: Why You Should Help Family Search

It is truly a great resource to be able to access records, view them, search for them via indexes when we visit www.familysearch.org.  I find it to be an amazing resources for all of us to be able to browse through records that would cost us thousands upon thousands of dollars as well as countless hours sitting in an archive in another city, country, and/or continent.  I’m very thankful that FamilySearch has made this an available resources to all of us and all at NO cost.  However imagine what it takes from their end in making this possible!  Below is a video that came from their website.  In order to show our appreciation, all they from those of us that research is that we volunteer in indexing some records.  So first watch the video and below that I’ll provide more details.

So how can you help?  Very easily!  When your visit FamilySearch’s website, at the top you’ll see a link that says “Indexing”.  Ignore the drop down menu and simply click on Indexing which will lead you to their indexing page.  They have easy to follow tutorials, software, and projects where you can help.

One of the biggest complaints is that you can’t find your family members since the name were index correctly.  This is due to those who don’t speak the language nor can they read it or recognize the name by simply glimpsing at it so they provide the best information that they can.  Currently there are projects to index for both Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.  There are also many for Mexico, Central and South American countries as well as in Spain.  Doing your part makes it easier to research and also gives back an incentive to FamilySearch to pursue those regions in getting more records digitized.  The more interest, the more likely the records will be digitized.  So please do your part. It’s very easy and I’ve done plenty myself. They also have plenty of friendly people to walk you through the process or any issues you may encounter.