What do I do for fun? I search genealogical indexes for family names. When I am bored, when I have a few minutes to spare, when I am depressed; I get online and log into ancestry.com and familysearch.org and start typing in names. I am driven to find them. One thing about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka LDS Church who sponsors familysearch.org), they strengthen the family past, present, and future.
Just this last week I had spent over two hours trying to find more family members through different lines of my grandparents to add to what I already had logged online on https://familysearch.org/. It’s free and there are so many records already indexed and cataloged, I’m sure that anyone can find their own family already there and link themselves to generations before them. It is just amazing. This project gives me the connection of my family for six generations back.
I have felt this way since I was a teenager. I’ve thought about the fortitude my grandparents had to start a new life here in this country who paved the way for me to live a happy life. They have given me the drive to collect all the information about our family. We have much to be thankful for in our modern world and by taking notice of who came before us, we can pass our gratitude on to the next generation. Take a look at who came before you and this will help you to be grateful for who you are now.
Right now, during this coming week, there is a worldwide Indexing project going on to encourage everyone who can help to type in one batch of names in the preservation of family records. The project of Indexing came from all those records which were photographed for preservation. These records now have to be manually entered in by computer and sent back to the familysearch.com website as a digital record. This work makes it possible for millions of records to be available online.
For example, when the 1940 Federal Census records were released to genealogists on April 2, 2012, the Family Search website gave the call to all who could take a few minutes and type in as many census records as possible. There were 2,477,023 people recorded in that census but the total record count to be typed was over 132 million and this had to be done manually. From an Indexer’s point of view, this would seem like it would take forever to finish but with many helpers it didn’t take as long as they thought.
Chief genealogy officer for FamilySearch.com, David Rencher said at the time: “[The 1940 census] will do more to connect living memory with historical records and families than any other collection previously made available.” Family Search needed 100 thousand people to help finish this project within a year. Imagine the surprise to the rest of the world when it was announced that with more than 163,000 volunteers the entire project was done in four months.
To read more of Valerie’s articles, click here.
Now with the touch of a finger we can find many who have come before us. The more records entered in, the more information we can find online which in turn means we can find our families. With this Worldwide Indexing Event from August 7th to the 14th 2015, we can be a part of helping others find their families. It’s a labor of love and we will be blessed for participating. Not only that but it is a gift to the world in finding our own families which connect the generations one to another.
Valerie Steimle has been writing as a family advocate for over 25 years. As a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she promotes Christian living in her writings and is the mother of nine children and grandmother to twelve. Mrs. Steimle authored six books and is a contributing writer to several online websites. To her, time is the most precious commodity we have and knows we should spend it wisely.
To read more of Valerie's work, visit her at her website, The Blessings of Family Life.
