Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing: Week 81

I can't believe I have gone two weeks without doing some FamilySearch Indexing. One of the big reasons I haven't had time to index is because my kids all seem to want to talk to me a lot. Each is going through their own struggles, highs and lows and want Mom's council. Really it's not so much my advice it's just for me to listen. So I have spent hours on hours of listening and doing nothing towards my own goals and objectives. Mainly spending quality time on my computer. In the last couple of weeks I have had many days that I never even got a chance to do anything on the computer.

Funny thing is I have to admit all this time away from the computer has been good for me. It's given me a chance to rest my arm and it is feeling much better. In fact the other day I had a moment where I had to think which arm hurt. I didn't have the constaint pressure and pain. I am finally mending. I am thankful for this blessing and side effect for listening to my kids.

In my last article I mentioned my computer problems and how I "fixed" them. My computer was so slow and how it was working faster. Well I discovered that "faster" is a relative term. Faster than what? My son happened to be away so I took the time to load my PC Tools Anti-Virus, Spyware Doctor and Firewall to his computer. Thinking it would help his computer like it did mine.

Well, after he started to use his computer he came to me and said change it back it's freezing and I can't work on my film editing programs now. I saw this perfectly fine computer just turn into junk and performing terrible with what I had done to it. I uninstalled the PC Tools programs and reinstalled Avira Anti-Virus, Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. It just hummed after that.

I realized that his computer was faster than mine so I thought maybe I should do the same to my computer. I did the uninstall and reinstalls as needed and now I am just flying on the computer. It's a funny thing when a computer gradually slows down on you. It sneaks up and you can't recall how fast it was suppost to be in the first place. Why does it have to be so hard to find programs to protect your computer that don't cripple the speed in the long run? I miss Spyware Doctor but I don't miss the performance issues. I think I am protected just fine now.

Well, it's time to do some indexing. First we need to see if there are any new messages for us.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Arkansas County Marriages VI
Date: 04 May 2009

Arkansas County Marriages VI is dfferent from the other Arkansas projects. There is a new document style that we call "Style 4." (Click here to see an example). Below are some tips on indexing these records:

*Style 4 records in the Arkansas County Marriage VI project should be indexed from left to right in rows, not in columns. If a page number was recorded on one of these cards, do not index it.

*For quicker and easier indexing, you may want to rearrange the order of the fields in the data entry area or hide fields that do not need to be indexed (because the information was not recorded). To do this:

1. Click the View menu.
2. Click the Organize Fields...
3. Click the field you want to move, and then click the up and down arrows.
4. Click the field in the Selected Fields list that you want to hide, and then click the right arrow.
   

• To unhide a field: Click the field in the Hidden Fields list, and then click the left arrow.
  

Note: For required fields that do not have information to be indexed, be sure to mark them blank before you hide them.

Arkansas County Marriages VI also has another document style with only one index card per image. Do not index the page numbers on these cards either.

To learn more or to find answers specific to this project, please refer to the project instructions and project revisions page.

We greatly appreciate the time and effort you give to this indexing initiative.

Here is another message on FamilySearchIndexing.org it's pre-dated into the future.

May 14, 2009: Canadian Census Now Available

The 1916 Canada Census is now available for free for patrons of family history centers through the center's AncestryInstitution.com login.

I was really hoping that the New York Census project was still available. I looked and the New York - 1905 State Census is there. Yippee!! I still get to work with New York. I am trying to be good and not over push things so I did only one batch. There were 100 names on it but it was pretty quick to do.

The handwriting on the census was terrible in places. I had several names I could not make out, and I could just tell I never would. It reminded me of my father's handwriting. When he doesn't know how to spell a word he scribbles. I think this index taker had the same problem. It was always on a long foreign type name that was all jumbled up. I gave it my best shot. Sometimes it is nice to know that someone else will also index your batch and then an arbitrator will see it to compare what's right.

My grand total to date of names indexed is 11770. Slow but steady I am progressing.

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