The page at the web site states: This collection is being published as images become available.
My guess is that the more people who volunteer to index the records, the faster the project will be completed. Anyone can volunteer to help. If you're so inclined, visit FamilySearch, click on the icon labelled "Indexing" and follow the instructions. You'll have to download a small program, but it's no big deal! I've done quite a bit of indexing myself.
After you've been indexing for a while, they may ask you if you're interested in arbitrating. Here' s how it works: After you've downloaded the software, you log in and are presented with a list of documents that require indexing. The documents are rated for difficulty from 1 (easy) to 5 (difficult). For example, it would be easier to index a 1940 US census than a 15th century Portuguese baptismal record. Unless you speak 15th century Portuguese!!
Each document is indexed by two separate volunteers. Then that work is made available to arbitrators who make decisions when the indexers don't agree on what's written in the document. For example, is it "Daniel" or "David". Is it "Louisa" or "Lovisa". The arbitrators decide and then the document can be uploaded and made available for searching.
It's been a while and there might be a few tweaks in how they operate, but I can't imagine it's changed much. At any rate, the good news is that more records are being made available for on-line research!
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- October is National Family History Month (dupagecountygenealogicalsociety.wordpress.com)
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[…] More Massachusetts Vital Records Available at FamilySearch – Indexing […]
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