| FamilySearch indexer—want to know the lastest about FamilySearch indexing? Check this out! In this issue:
 200 Million Records in 2010
Tougher than First Expected
At the end of June, FamilySearch indexers had completed the indexing of more than 100 million records, including the step of arbitration. With great momentum and half of the year to go, the indexing team decided to change the indexing goal for the year from 170 million records to 200 million records, a sizable increase. The team also decided to publicize this goal, so all of the indexing volunteers could become aware of the goal and work together in accomplishing this monumental objective. The launch of the 1930 U.S. Census at the beginning of August was expected to increase both interest in indexing and productivity to help accomplish the goal of 200 million records; however, the actual impact has been mixed. 1930 Census Impact
Census records are among the most popular records for indexers because of the density of names and consistent organization. The 1910 and 1920 U.S. Federal Census projects were completed in an amazingly short period of time, thanks to the combined efforts of our volunteers. For these projects, the existing index created by Ancestry.com is used as a key, so volunteers only needed to create one additional key prior to arbitration. Indexing the 1930 U.S. Federal Census project, however, is a little different from the 1910 and 1920 census projects. Continue reading and post comments . . .
Indexing: The Railway to Your Ancestors
The following analogy was first presented to FamilySearch by Gilbert Staepels, who currently resides in France.
 Congress agreed in 1862 that building a railroad would save future time and money. And it did. Although it took six years to build, it served as a vital link for trade, commerce, and travel that joined the Atlantic and Pacific coasts together for the very first time. Not only was it reliable, it was faster, safer, and cheaper than any other method. The transcontinental railroad surpasses the building of the Erie Canal as one of America's greatest technological feats of the 19th century.
In the movie Mountain of the Lord, created by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the prophet Brigham Young declared a cease of all construction of the Salt Lake Temple to assist the union workers with the railway. Many did not understand this decision, but Brigham explained it by saying, "We are not going to halt work on the temple. . . . In fact, we will be advancing it. You see, I believe that in order to complete the temple, we must first expend every possible effort to complete the railroad." Indexing, you could say, is like a railway to your ancestors. Continue reading and post comments . . .
Indexing Tips from Arbitrators
There has been a lot of wonderful growth in indexing this year. We are always trying to increase our numbers by adding more indexers, but another way to increase numbers is to be more accurate with the records we index now. As many may already know, each batch of records is indexed twice, which creates two "keys." If there are any differences between the two keys, the batch is sent to arbitration. Our arbitrators are an essential part of the process because they compare the two keys and make final corrections. If there are a significant number of corrections to be made, the arbitrators can send one or both of the keys back to be re-indexed. The keys sent back are cleared of data, and the batches are assigned to different indexers. This creates more work and slows our progress down.
Because all arbitrators have been indexers before they started arbitration, and because they see a lot of the common indexing mistakes, I asked some of them to give me their best tips for indexers to make sure we only need to index records once. Below you will find a list of their favorite tips so we can all improve our indexing and speed up the process of completing records. Continue reading and post comments . . .
1930 U.S. Federal Census
 Have you downloaded a batch of the 1930 U.S. Census similar to this image on the right, that had only selected information already indexed? Have you wondered why the previous indexer chose to index only certain information? Click here to find out why.
| FamilySearch Indexing Statistics Current Needs - Arbitrators. Contact your local support or FamilySearch to learn more.
- Non-English language skills. Currently projects are available in 9 languages, with Polish and Hungarian projects coming soon.
- Reading Latin handwriting. The early U.K. projects include many Latin documents.
Invite a friend!
Is someone you know interested in family history, transcription, or providing free records access to researchers? Please pass this message along with an invitation to participate in an indexing project.
Indexing Tip
Is your indexing program up to date? Check out this article to find out.
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