Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing: Week 69

I missed indexing last week. What a way to start out the New Year. It took me a week but I did write down my goals for the new year. Much of it is organizing. This week I was organizing my schedule and planning out when I would get things I want to do accomplished. It appears I have no time now to do anything, which isn't hard to do when you work 4 hours a day and then come home and sleep 4 hours.

I wanted to accomplish more scanning of my documents on Sundays. You can do a lot of pondering and thinking over the great questions of life while you wait for the scanner to do it's job. Since church isn't until 12:30 p.m. I thought I could fit in a couple of hours of scanning in the morning before church. I actually accomplished something in this area this morning. I didn't actually run the scanner though. I was working on gathering all the photos together.

When I moved a couple of years ago I put all my photos that weren't in albums in a large three drawer plastic storage organizer that is on wheels. I had some miscellaneous photos in my file cabinets that I worked on pulling out today. Next week I will work on sorting the photos. I can just roll the storage organizer/container to the kitchen table and go to town. Then I can work on scanning the photos. Gotta put in some prep time to be the most productive in the long run.

What an example the Church is to us on the importance of preserving precious family history documents and making them more accessible to others. I hope that my personal scanning project will someday be useful to others too. I tell you I won't have a restful nights sleep until all my photos and documents have been digitized and shared with family members and fellow researchers. Then let the fire, floods and earthquakes come because I will have copied and backed up all my precious mementos off-site with others.

Church was good today and my nap was very restful. Now it's time to start working on my FamilySearch Indexing. First things first. Here are the messages from Headquarters.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Indexing Support Hours Changing
Date: 30 Dec 2008

Beginning January 2nd, the hours for Indexing Support will be changing. Continue to contact us toll-free at 1-866-406-1830.

• For help with the indexing program, or specific projects, hours are Monday-Friday from 7:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M., and Saturdays from 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. (MST, GMT-7).
• For help with UDE, extraction inventory, or to place an order, hours are Monday-Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. (MST, GMT-7).
• For help with administration and leadership for indexing and extraction, hours are Monday-Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. (MST, GMT-7).
  

The Support page of FamilySearch indexing Web site will be updated to reflect these changes soon.
Note: The Indexing Support offices will be closed on January 1st, New Year's Day.

Second message:

From: Headquarts
Subject: Indexing Support Hours Changing
Date: 30 Dec 2008

Currently, we are indexing the states of Massachusetts and Illinois in the 1920 US Federal Census, and we still need to finish indexing these before we will move on to the other states.

The Illinois project is 68% complete and Massachusetts is 84% complete. We have already completed the states of California and Alabama. Keep up the great work!

After we finish these two states, we will remove the Township field from the rest of the 1920 US Federal Census project. The township information will be collected here at Headquarters.

Arbitrators: As we work to complete the Illinois and Massachusetts projects, do not spend a lot of time arbitrating the Township field. Simply choose the option (Key A or Key B) that is the most correct.

Third message:

From: Headquarters
Subject: Semimonthly Message
Date: 02 Jan 2009

Here is a tip to start your new year:

Save to the Server

Use the Save to Server feature to save your work online to the FamilySearch indexing computers. When you do this it means that any indexing work you are able to do on a batch - be it 5 minutes or 5 names - will not be lost.

If you run out of time, cannot complete the batch within seven days, or have issues with your computer that keep you from completing the batch, your work will be saved and another indexer will be able to pick up wherever you left off.

Also use the Save to Server feature if you do indexing on more than one computer. If you are working on your home computer and cannot finish your batch before you need to leave, save the batch to the server. Then when you start indexing again at work, at the library, or elsewhere, you can open the batch and pick up where you left off.

This feature is found in the File menu while you are working on a batch or you can use the Save to Server icon (a floppy disk next to a computer) on the toolbar in the middle of the indexing screen.

Note: Always remember to submit your batch when you have finished indexing all of the records on the images(s).

Fourth message:

From: Headquarters
Subject: Internet Explorer 6
Date: 06 Jan 2009

There have been some issues with the display of the FamilySearch indexing Web site for users of Internet Explorer (IE) version 6. This version of IE is no longer supported by Microsoft, and users should either update their Internet browser to version 7 or download a different free browser, such as Mozilla Firefox.

To update or download one of these new browsers, follow one of the links below:

For Internet Explorer 7, click here. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page and follow the instructions under the heading, "Get Internet Explore 7")

For Mozilla Firefox, click here. (Then click the green button in the middle of the page and follow the instructions.)

If you use Windows Internet Explorer, but you do not know which version it is:

1. Open the Internet Explorer.
2. Click Help on the menu bar.
3. Click About Internet Explorer.
4. Look for the version number on this page.

Note: If the version is below 7, then you need to update to the newest version of Internet Explorer by clicking on the link above.

Final message is from the FamilySearch Indexing website.

January 5, 2009: Happy New Year!

We cannot say enough to thank all those who contributed to the FamilySearch indexing program over the past year. In 2008, we indexed over 115 million names. That is more than the current population of Mexico. What a great achievement!

We are very excited to see how our numbers grow in 2009.

Wow, that was a lot of message. That's what happens when you skip a week indexing. Now the big questions for the week is what batches am I going to index from. There is quit the variety of languages and projects to chose from.

• Dutch, Flemish (1)
• English (13)
• French (1)
• German (2)
• Italian (1)
• Norwegian (1)
• Russian (1)
• Spanish (8)
  

I guess by now you know me, it has to be an English project. I was hoping that the Massachusetts 1920 US Federal Census was still available but it's gone. I do see the Illinois 1920 US Federal Census available so I picked that. Darn, no projects. Ok, what else to pick? Since I love working in New York or the New England states, I decided to pick the Massachusetts 1865 State Census.

The handwriting was very clear for it being 1865 and all. My batches went pretty quick. I did two of them. It gave me a total of 168 names indexed today. I now have a grand total of 10,173 names indexed to date. I think I am getting used to indexing. It's been a long day and I will close for now.

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

Mark Your Calendars - UGA Meeting!

The January Meeting will be held on January 16 -- it comes early this month!!

Our Speaker will be Bruce Buzbee who will be talking about Roots Magic 4. After the speaker we will be holding annual elections, so please plan to come and to stay until 8:30 so you can vote.

The meeting is held at 7 pm at the South Area Family History Training Center at 85 N 600 East in Provo.

See you there!!

Becky

For questions, contact: beckyanneroberts@msn.com

UVPAFUG New Location Reminder

To the members of the Utah Valley PAF Users Group living in Utah,

This is to remind you that this Saturday's monthly meeting is being held in a new location. The "red chapel" building, where we have been meeting for much more than a decade, is being completely renovated.

Beginning in January we will start meeting in the Edgewood/Riverside LDS building at 3511 North 180 East, in the river bottoms area of Provo. The only access to this area is from 3700 North. See http://uvpafug.org/map.htm for an online map of this location.

Meetings will still be held on the second Saturday from 9 am to Noon. In case you missed the press release for this meeting, you can read that at http://blog.uvpafug.org/.

We look forward to seeing you here during 2009.


Gerhard
President
Utah Valley PAF Users Group.
http://www.uvpafug.org/

FamilyLink Application on Facebook Becomes Fifth Most Popular Application

Connecting with family outpaces playing poker, writing bumper stickers, or posting videos.

PROVO, Utah, Jan 08, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- We're Related, a service developed by FamilyLink.com, Inc. to connect Facebook users to other family members, just became the fifth most popular application on Facebook Platform. The We're Related application surpassed Texas HoldEm Poker, Bumper Sticker, and Video by Facebook as well as more than 52,000 other Facebook applications in terms of active monthly users. "We are thrilled with the momentum of We're Related and are looking forward to future growth and the new functionality we will offer our loyal users," said Paul Allen, CEO, FamilyLink.com, Inc. "As the number of We're Related users increases, so does the number of connections people are making to their families."

We're Related was launched in October 2007 and is currently the most popular Facebook application for families with more than 16.5 million users. FamilyLink.com, Inc. also recently became one of the Top 500 Web companies in the world, based on Quantcast statistics.

"I'm just excited to see that families really want to connect with each other on the Internet. Our next goal is to grow to 50 million users by the end of this year to help even more individuals stay connected to their loved ones," said Jason McGowan, VP Product, FamilyLink.com, Inc.

Connecting families is also important to the top three family sites on the Internet, which include Geni.com, MyHeritage.com, and MyFamily.com. In addition to the 5.8 million monthly visitors using We're Related on Facebook, these three websites attract an additional 2.6 million monthly visitors who connect with their families online, according to statistics published by Quantcast, a service that measures online audiences.

Those who use the We're Related application also share their excitement through online comments and reviews:

"It's good to get all of my family in one place. I'm slowly adding people who I didn't even no I was related to and finding people that I haven't seen or heard from in years. We even found a cousin we had never spoken to," said Neka Towers.

"So far so good! It's great to connect with relatives I don't get to see more often!" said Kathie Smith, a Facebook user from Massachusetts.

"Awesome app ... Makes keeping up with the fam easier," said Junius Simon from Texas.

"Just joined and it has helped me find family I never knew existed. 5 stars!" said Tom Davies, new user on We're Related.

"This application is amazing ... I love being able to show who I am related to. Keep up the excellent work," said Willow Bigelow from Colorado.

We're Related was created to help individuals stay in touch with their families through photo sharing, a news feed, birthday reminders, etc. Individuals can also build their family tree using We're Related. For example, more than 100 million relationships (of living people) have been defined on We're Related. The most common relationship, by far, is cousin. This relationship is often defined in We're Related using the terms cuz, first cousin, or my cousin.

We're Related is a free application on Facebook. It can be downloaded through Facebook at: http://tinyurl.com/75f6rk.

About FamilyLink.com, Inc.

FamilyLink.com, Inc. is a family of services that includes WorldVitalRecords.com ( http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/), FamilyHistoryLink.com ( http://www.familyhistorylink.com/), WebTree.com ( http://www.webtree.com/), and the We're Related ( http://tinyurl.com/75f6rk) and My Family ( http://tinyurl.com/7m9cty) applications on Facebook. The focus of the company is to bring families closer through innovative online services. A combined global audience of 11.5 million unique individuals visits the Web properties owned and operated by FamilyLink.com, Inc. each month to generate 28 million monthly page views. We're Related is one of the fastest-growing social networks for genealogists as well as other family members. The application helps individuals find relatives on Facebook, keep in touch with family members through news and status updates, build family trees, and share photos. Those who use We're Related actively participate in guiding the product roadmap through an online forum and direct feedback.

SOURCE FamilyLink.com, Inc.