Lynn's Lines - FamilySearch Indexing...are you doing it?

Well, I've held back until now on writing something related to family history/genealogy, but thought I would pass this along. The following was printed in the Deseret News, and was sent to me in a work memo. Keep in mind that all the records indexed via FamilySearch Indexing end up on FamilySearch's Record Search website.

Indexing in Iraq: a way to relax

By Michael De Groote

Mormon Times

Published: February 19, 2009

Dan Bradford didn't want to waste what little free time he had between 13-hour shifts in Iraq's Baghdad International Zone.

So he did volunteer indexing of census records.

"We are in a closed environment. There aren't any theaters, restaurants or malls," Bradford said. "When I got home at night I wanted something to do that was different than just watching a video or DVD."

Bradford is retired from the U.S. Army and works as a consultant with a defense contractor in Iraq. He is also a servicemen's group leader in the Manama Bahrain Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the only stake in an area that includes Iraq.

During a telephone interview while he was home for the holidays in Woods Cross, Bradford said he loaded up his new laptop computer with indexing software from FamilySearchIndexing.org before he arrived in Iraq. He found it was not only easy, but also relaxing and satisfying.

"And so I started doing (volunteer name indexing) and found it enjoyable and relaxing in many ways, which probably sounds incongruous," he said.

Indexing is a volunteer effort directed by FamilySearch to create electronic easy-to-use search indexes for census and other original documents.

A volunteer uses the software to download one section, or "batch," of records to index. The volunteer looks at a photograph of an original document on the computer and types in the words. The software links the typed letters with the various portions of the document to create an interactive document that can be searched by typing in keywords.

According to Bradford, the software makes the process easy to learn and fun. He enjoyed it so much that he began challenging himself to see how many names he could do in a month.

Internet connections can be slow in Iraq. Every morning, Bradford would set his computer to download a few batches. When he came back for lunch, he could begin going through names.

"I found shortcuts that could make it go a little faster and easier," he said. "I found that I could do old census batches in about 12 to 13 minutes."

Bradford's personal challenge resulted in him completing 10,000 names in one month.

That was back in June, and he now tries to do about 1,000 names a month. Bradford has indexed a total of about 17,000 names so far.

"It's not as complicated as you think it is going to be. It doesn't take as much time in general — especially after you have done a couple batches and see how it works," Bradford said. "It's interesting and you see names and you … wonder what that person was like."

Bradford left Jan. 6 to go back to Iraq. It is a safe bet that several thousand more names will be indexed before he returns home to Utah in May.

-end of article-

Have you indexed lately?