Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing

Being Sunday I once again worked on FamilySearch Indexing. I can tell you now that it does appear to have become a habit. That seems right on schedule because it take 21 days to develop a new habit and this is my third week of FSI. This is definitely a good habit to be into. I was able to use a few reader tips to help me in my indexing. I will pass them along to you in a separate article.

I was able to index today 50 names that makes a grand total of 250 individuals indexed so far. Wow, that's a quarter of a thousand people, hehe. 250 individuals could make up a whole town, small one, but still a town. I am crawling at a snail's pace but I am at least getting somewhere. I wonder if anyone has ever indexed a complete town in one session?

This past Monday my fellow FHC worker Gean told me she had indexed 1,200 people so far. We started indexing at the same time. It's really exciting to see what people can get done. If I wasn't so into doing my genealogy maybe I would spend more time indexing. For now a Sunday session is all I can handle. I am actually thinking of starting another Sabbath day routine - working on my Family History Consultant Training Courses on the Church's Internet Learning System (Net Dimensions).

I want to share with you a reader's comments on their FSI experience.

From: Mitch Mackrory (Colorado LDS)

I only managed to start indexing properly about 7 weeks back when I got my own laptop. I travel a fair bit for work and now I lug two laptops everywhere. It is a pain but very rewarding. I set a goal based on the number of days in the month (setting goals is not intuitive let me know if you need help with it), and so far I have achieved them both by month end. I have my personal laptop alongside my work machine and if the work machine has a poor response I do FSI.

I am also now arbitrating and they can go a bit faster althou I have had some that were so in need of help that they took me over an hour each. I generally reckon on 45 minutes average to index a batch. 30 minutes is very fast. Its gets easier but some are just very difficult.

You have probably already seen the stats in the bottom left hand corner of the main screen.

I download 5 batches (the maximum) late Saturday evening. That gives me about 3.5 to 4 hours of work on Sunday. Responses on Sunday are now unacceptable (IMO), so I do that and only upload or download on Sunday if I am doing something else or taking a break.

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[Renee's note: I totally agree don't plan on downloading batches on Sunday!]

I'm still looking for your stories or experiences in FamilySearch Indexing. If you have one to share send me an email at: zamora05@hotmail.com

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!