Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing: Week 66

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged. Where is the time going. I've had a combination of being busy and being very tired because I was busy. That's not a good mixture when you have fibromyalgia. I have been feeling a little better this week and I think I know why. For the past month my liquid vitamin (Alive) that I buy at the health food store has been out of stock. I bought the pill form but I don't absorb pills to well. Hench my being so run down. Last week the liquid vitamin finally was available and I am slowly getting my strength back. Just a great reminder to me on how important taking my liquid vitamin is.

Now I am back to indexing. First I had to check for any news I might of missed. I looked in My Messages in the FamilySearch Indexing program and thought I would include the emails to us from them even if the dates have passed.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Progress of the 1916 Canadian Census Project
Date: 01 Dec 2008

We greatly appreciate all the efforts that have been made on the 1916 Canadian Census project. This is the second time FamilySearch Indexing has united volunteers to complete a project by a specific date, and we have seen great things accomplished when everyone works together.

Indexing on this project is now 87% complete. We are just two days away from our goal date of December 3rd. There may be times when batches will not be available. This does not necessarily mean the project is complete; it just means that all of the batches are assigned to volunteers. Please check back to see if any batches become available until you recieve word from us that the project is complete.

If you have a batch from this project that you are not planning to index, please return the batch as soon as possible for someone else to index. To return a batch:

1. On the start page of the FamilySearch Indexing application, click on the batch to be returned.
2. Click Return Batch.
3. Click OK.
   

If you started working on a batch, but you do not think you can finish indexing it by Wednesday, save your work to the server and then return the batch for someone else to complete. To save your work to the server and return the batch:

1. Open the batch.
2. On the menu bar, click File.
3. Click Save to Server.
4. On the menu bar, click File again.
5. Click Return Batch...
6. Click OK.
   

Thank you again for all of your efforts!

If you have any questions regarding this project or about indexing in general, please contact Indexing Support toll-free in the U. S. and Canada at 1-866-406-1830 (click here for other international toll-free numbers), or by e-mail at index@familysearch.org.

Next Message:

From: Headquarters
Subject: System Downtime
Date: 08 Dec 2008

The FamilySearch indexing system will be down for approximately 24 hours from 6:30am MST on Wednesday, December 10th, to 6:30am on Thursday, December 11th. Please submit or return all batches you have downloaded before 6:30am Wednesday morning. You will not be able to do any indexing until the system is back up.

THIS IS DIFFERENT FROM THE PAST WHEN YOU COULD DOWNLOAD SEVERAL BATCHES AND WORK OFFLINE. ANY BATCHES DOWNLOADED BEFORE WEDNESDAY AND NOT SUBMITTED BEFORE THE SYSTEM GOES DOWN WILL BE INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE NEW SYSTEM AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SUBMIT THEM.

During the downtime, we will be updating our databases. Indexers will not notice any significant updates to the indexing application.

We are hoping this process will not take the full 24 hours to complete. Please be patient and we will bring the system back up as soon as we possibly can.

The next message gives us an update on the system down time.

From: Headquarters
Subject: System Downtime DELAYED
Date: 09 Dec 2008

The scheduled downtime for Wednesday has been delayed until next week. We will have more details soon.

For now, continue to index as usual.
___________________________________
Se has pospuesto el mantenimiento del sistema.

El mantenimiento programado para el miercoles se ha pospuesto para la siguiente semana. Les proporcionaremos detalles en breve. Por ahora le agradecemos seguir indexando normalmente.

That was interesting typing the last part in Spanish.

We do have two messages on the FamilySearch Indexing website.

December 9, 2008: System Downtime Delayed

The FamilySearch indexing system downtime scheduled for Wednesday, December 10th, has been delayed until next week. We will have more details soon. For now, continue to index as usual.

December 9, 2008: Progress of the 1916 Canadian Census

The 1916 Canadian Census project is now 99% complete. If you have a batch downloaded, please do what you can to finish it as soon as possible. If you cannot finish it, please save your work to the server and return the batch so another volunteer may help.

We sincerely appreciate the time and effort you have given to this project.

Even though I am a little late I just had to check and see if there are any 1916 Canadian Census records left to index. Yup, just as I figured no batches to index right now. There are 10 other English language project for me to choose from. I decided to go with what I had been working on the Massachusetts - 1920 U.S. Federal Census.

I did three batches of 50 each. Two of my batches had been previously worked on but the individuals before me didn't get very far. I wouldn't be surprised if they were people thinking that they need to have batches done or returned tonight because of the down time previously scheduled. My third batch was a fresh one to index.

I now have indexed 9705 records to date. I only have 295 records to index before the end of the year to reach my goal of 10,000. I should be able to do that in three more weeks. YIKES! three weeks, I can't believe it's that close to the end of the year and to Christmas. I haven't even begun to Christmas shop. Crazy weeks are still ahead of me. I just have to keep taking my liquid vitamin so I have the energy to get things done.

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