How would you find them without an index?

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="75"] English: 145-volume stack of the 1959 World Book Encyclopedia printed in Braille. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

How's that for a question?  Back...way back...when I first began researching on the internet, there weren't

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="75"] Advertisement for Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1913 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

very many records that were "indexed."  What that means specifically can be explained best by thinking back ....way back....when we had giant sets of books like the Encyclopedia Brittanica or World Book Encyclopedia.  There were thousands and thousands of pages of articles that talked about everything you can possibly imagine.  Have you ever used an encyclopedia?  If not, I can tell you that they were usually 20 to 25 volumes, each of which contained 400 or 500 pages of information.

Now picture having an encyclopedia in place of Google.  Except that this imaginary encyclopedia isn't even arranged alphabetically.  Everything is just sort of piled in there, stuck every which way with the first article about watermelons followed by zebras then something else totally unconnected to what came before or what came after.  How long would it take you to find the article about Hawaii? I can tell you, you'd be late for dinner!  But these volumes were "indexed" so that you could go to the back of the book and look up your subject in an alphabetical index.  That would send you not only to the right volume, but the exact page you needed....a primitive Google, if you will!  No bells and whistles....just words and pictures.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="75"] English: Google Logo officially released on May 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

Welcome to the world of un-indexed US Census records or un-indexed city probate files or un-indexed anything!.  How is it that finding what we're looking for is so easy today?  The answer is simple: indexing!

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="75"] Adriana Hernandez baptized 1925 (Photo credit: GoCal83)[/caption]

 

So who does all this indexing? Family Search just announced that they have a billion records indexed.  That will sure help all of us in our diligent search for any genealogical records.  But the mystery remains: Who does all this indexing? The answer is so simple, I'm sure you already know.  It's you and me!  Well, I can say "you" if you've ever signed up as a volunteer indexer.  How did the search engines get the 1940 US Census up and searchable so fast?  Indexers, volunteer indexers.

Here's my point: If everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY could find the time to get involved just a little imagine the amazing, mind-numbing volume of records could be indexed in a single day!  Family Search has already had one "mass indexing day" back on 2 July 2012 when a total of nearly 50,000 indexers and arbitrators set a record for the most number of indexers working in one day!

Well they're planning on it again and YOU can help!  On Sunday, July 20, 2014 at 9 PM eastern time and continuing for 24 hours, Family Search is challenging all genealogists to break that 2012 record and index as many records as possible. Have you been indexing right along?  Then please be sure to participate in the "World Indexing Project" by indexing just one record...and more if you can!  But they're only asking for 50,000 plus to help with just one record.  That's all!

If you've never indexed records for Family Search, click on the "Indexing" tab on the home page and you'll discover how interesting it can be for a researcher to see how it all works.  Here's the "Worldwide Indexing Event" page at Family Search and here's "Worldwide Indexing Event" at their Facebook page which was set up strictly for this project. If you've never been to the site, you'll have to establish a user name and password.  But there's no cost, no membership fees, no worries!

Good luck!  Give it a shot!  No one starts out running, there's a short learning curve with plenty of on site assistance every

step of the way.  Like the commercial, "Try it!  You'll like it!!"

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Josh Taylor Quote and his RootsTech Presentation

DISCLAIMER: Understand that I was not at RootsTech this year as much as I would like to have gone. Maybe next year? However, this is a reblog of a post by THEGENEALOGYGIRL with a Josh Taylor quote and a link to his RootsTech presentation. I thought it well worth spreading it around!  Scroll to the bottom of this post.

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30 Day Indexing Challenge

30 Day Indexing Challenge.  Indexed records are likely the only type of records that a majority of researchers are familiar with.  Many don't realize that there are millions upon millions of records that remain UN-indexed.  For that reason, those records are either impossible to find or at best a difficult challenge to browse for your ancestor.



Here's the answer: Indexing!  See "30 Day Indexing Challenge." Simply put, you look at a hand written document, transcribe it by typing what you see into the appropriate fields and submit!  Each document is indexed twice.  Discrepancies are sent to "Arbitrators" to resolve those discrepancies.  Once all 3 steps are complete, VOILA!  You can search for the individuals within that record and get the data you need for your research.

I'm reblogging from "thegenealogygirl" who has thrown down the research gauntlet and is asking volunteers to step up and assist with this vital part of everyone's research.

Try the program at www.familysearch.org where you'll see links on the home page to get you started.  Click "Indexing" just below the large picture. It will take you to this page where you can "Test Drive",  "Get Started", "Find a Project" (from easy to very difficult!!) and "Get Help".

It's easy...really!!

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Family Stories: Using Newspapers to Reconnect with Your Family's Past

Today's blog post is mainly a way for me to introduce you to Legacy Family Tree webinars.  They're referred to as "Webinar Wednesdays" and this week's subject is using newspapers to enhance your family research.  The broadcasts are free and are archived to access for free for one week.  There are membership options that allow you to access the complete archive of the hundreds of broadcasts done over the past few of years. Attendees who stay til the end are treated to the opportnity to win "door prizes".

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="350"] Legacy Family Tree Homepage (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

Legacy Family Tree offers many services including their family tree building software.  The product is really quite good and is updated with reasonable frequency.  There's "standard" edition that you can download for free from a link on the website's homepage. There are also links to purchase other products that you may find useful.

But to get back to the webinars for a minute, the moderator is Geoff Rasmussen who introduces the guest of the week.  The subject matter is always in the field of genealogy and attracts some very well known genealogy personalities, such as Judy G Russell.  Judy is an attorney, a genealogist and a speaker with a national audience.  You should take a look at her blog, The Legal Genealogist.  She writes in "English" rather than "Lawyer Speak" so you'll get her message rather than a headache trying to figure out what she's writing about.  Follow her blog and you'll get a daily notice of that day's blog.  How she finds the time is beyond me!

Register for this week's broadcast, "Family Stories: Using Newspapers to Reconnect with Stories of Your Family's Past" at www.familytreewebinars.com.

Take a look and let me know what you think!

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You've Finally Found that Elusive Relative, but.....

 

Ancestry.com (Photo credit: LollyKnit)

If there's anyone on the planet who is more enthusiastic than me regarding family research, I haven't met them.  I'm especially focused after preparing for and delivering an instructional lecture on just that very subject.  I've been lucky enough to have been able to book 6 different venues for a variety of programs.  Some are "one-night-stands" and others are 3, 4, 5 even 6 individual sessions long.

 So I'd like to start with last night.  The weather was threatening and, frankly, we didn't get all the people who signed up to show up.  So there was a smaller, cozier group.  One attendee is the head archivists at a local repository.  Imagine how I felt trying to teach someone who probably has forgotten more than I know! Another person was a middle aged man who has been researching for many years. We also had a newby, a tyro who was uncommonly enthusiastic....but not more enthusiastic than me!!

This 2-session program is a somewhat condensed version of my usual 4 or 5 session programs.  So we all had a lot of

 

English: Google Logo officially released on May 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ground to cover.  I decided that since there were more people there who were relatively experienced, I'd dive into tips and strategies to use on Ancestry, FamilySearch, Google and others.



Which (finally) brings me to the subject of tonight's blog.  And it's this:  There are 2 categories of information that can be found at any genealogy research website.  One of the more reliable sets of records are the public records such as census, probate, military, christening, birth, marriage, death and so on.  Whenever I find a "hint", if it includes public records, I'll take the time to check out those records and make a judgement as to the accuracy of the data and its relevance to the subject person.  That's the easy part!  

What's more challenging is to help "students" understand the pitfalls of privately uploaded Public Member Trees with little or

 

Maria Hernandez baptized 1920 (Photo credit: GoCal83)

no supporting documentation.  Ancestry calls these trees "Unsourced".  So many "enthusiastic" researchers are too fast to grab data and put it up on the internet to help build their trees, not realizing the danger.  If its out there, someone will download it and take it for gospel simply because it was on the internet. After all, if it's on the internet, it must be ironclad fact.  Not so fast!



Now in the interest of disclaimers, I've used the data from many of those Public Member Trees without too much worry, but only those trees that have sources already attached.  That doesn't mean that I grab it and run.  I will do the same thing as I do with the public records.  I open that member's tree and take a look at what has been attached to it for sources and go through the same process of judging the accuracy and relevance.  If a Public Member Tree has information on individuals that may have a fit in my family, it's worth the effort to move slowly on trusting someone else's work.

English: Screen capture of FamilySearch.org web site (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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When all else fails, hire a professional genealogist

Great advice...Interesting interview!  Hire a local, New England oriented professional genealogist, Old Bones!  Visit my site at Old Bones Genealogy or contact me directly at dave@oldbones.info!

More Massachusetts Vital Records Available at FamilySearch --- Indexing

Documents from the Massachusetts Vital Records from 1916 to 1920 and amendments from 1841 to 1920 are going up at FamilySearch.

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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Order Copies from FamilySearch - LDS - Salt Lake City

Anyone who researches their family using Family Search will find this useful. For several months, has been possible to order copies of documents that are found at Family Search, the LDS family research website. I've just ordered 2 documents and I'll keep you posted as to when I receive them. It's supposed to take a week or two, so we'll see! This is not to be confused with ordering a microfilm from a Family History Center such as the one in Ludlow, MA. This process will send you an e-mail with the document(s) attached.

The page at Family Search is in the FamilySearch Blog and it's called "Policy Change for Patrons Requesting Photocopies...". Click the title in parentheses to be directed the proper page. I've never tried to find it from the home page so I can't give you those directions. But for myself, I've bookmarked the site in Firefox and added it to the Favorites/Genealogy category in Internet Explorer. I have to make things extra easy for myself sometimes...you know, dumb it down!!

The instructions are a little daunting. And although I didn't fill in all the blanks, I still received and acknowledgment of my request which make me believe I've sent enough information.

A Billion Records!!!

The following press release was issued this afternoon by Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.

Groundbreaking Agreement to Deliver Valuable Historical Content Over the Next Five Years
PROVO, Utah, September 5, 2013 – Ancestry.com and FamilySearch International (online at FamilySearch.org), the two largest providers of family history resources, announced today an agreement that is expected to make approximately 1 billion global historical records available online and more easily accessible to the public for the first time. With this long-term strategic agreement, the two services will work together with the archive community over the next five years to digitize, index and publish these records from the FamilySearch vault.

The access to the global collection of records marks a major investment in international content as Ancestry.com continues to invest in expanding family history interest in its current markets and worldwide. Ancestry.com expects to invest more than $60 million over the next five years in the project alongside thousands of hours of volunteer efforts facilitated by FamilySearch.

“This agreement sets a path for the future for Ancestry.com and FamilySearch to increasingly share international sets of records more collaboratively,” said Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry.com. “A significant part of our vision for family history is helping provide a rich, engaging experience on a global scale. We are excited about the opportunities it will bring to help benefit the family history community and look forward to collaborating with FamilySearch to identify other opportunities to help people discover and share their family history.”

The organizations will also be looking at other ways to share content across the two organizations. Both organizations expect to add to the already digitized records shared across the two websites in addition to new record projects to be completed over the next five years.
“We are excited to work with Ancestry.com on a vision we both share,” said Dennis Brimhall, President of FamilySearch. “Expanding online access to historical records through this type of collaboration can help millions more people discover and share their family’s history.”

This marks a groundbreaking agreement between the two services. But the two organizations aren’t strangers to working with each other; hundreds of millions of records have already been shared and are available on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. The companies also announced in early 2013 an additional project where they plan to publish 140 million U.S. Wills & Probate images and indexes over the next three years—creating a national database of wills and other probate documents spanning 1800-1930 online for the very first time.