Indexing Update

Partner Indexing Projects

FamilySearch has a growing number of society indexing partners. FamilySearch Indexing is working with genealogical or historical societies to complete projects of mutual interest. Volunteer indexers may have noted that partner projects are not readily listed in the available batches to index online unless the volunteer has been granted permission to participate by a partner.

FamilySearch indexers can request to participate in a partner project by sending an e-mail directly to the project’s contact or administrator. The society contact information is found next to the project listing (Go to FamilySearchIndexing.org, Projects, Current Projects, scroll down to partner projects, or just click here.

If permission is granted by the partner, an indexer will receive an e-mail with a new user name and temporary password to use when accessing that society’s project(s). Volunteers should use their regular login and password to continue indexing FamilySearch’s open (non partner) projects as usual.

Current society partners and projects are listed below:

• Algemeen Rijksarchief en Rijksarchief in de Provincien (National Archives of Brussels)
• Arkansas Genealogical Society
• Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia
• Immigrant Ancestors Project
• Indiana Genealogical Society
• Ohio Genealogical Society
• The New England Historic Genealogical Society
  

Current Partner Projects, Record Language, and Percent Completion Status

Arkansas Marriages [The first of these projects] English 5%
Arkansas Marriages IV English 2%
Belgique – Registres Des Décès (Français) French 14%
België - Overlijdens Registers - In het Nederlands Dutch, Flemish 5%
Bremer Schifflisten German New!
Flanders Death Registration French, Dutch, Flemish 33%
Indiana Marriages, 1790 – Apr 1905 English 60%
Indiana Marriages, 1882 – Apr 1905 English 64%
Indiana Marriage Returns, 1882 – Apr 1905 English 48%
Indiana Marriages, Apr 1905 – Dec 1957 English 40%
Nova Scotia Antigonish Church Records, 1823 – 1905 English 35%
Ohio Tax Records – 2 of 4 English 59%
Vermont Militia Records (Coming Soon) English New!

Indexes can be searched for free at http://pilot.familysearch.org. Visit regularly to see what is new!

Mark Your Calendars - UVPAFUG Meeting!

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 8 Nov 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Gerhad Ruf on USING WORLDCONNECT AT ROOTSWEB FOR PUBLISHING AND BACKUP. The presentation will describe the advantages in using the WorldConnect database to publish your genealogical data online and to use it as a backup for that data. There are many options for controlling your data and these will be detailed in the presentation.

Gerhard Ruf has worked with various aspects of computers and technology over the past 25 years and since 1995 he has served in the leadership of the Utah Valley PAF Users Group. He has been its President for many years. Gerhard has been presenting classes on genealogical software for at least 10 years and his topics have included many aspects of using computers and the Internet to enhance your family history research. He has spoken at local, regional, and national genealogical conferences and workshops, and is currently employed at MyFamily.com as a Community Operations Specialist at The Generations Network, the parent company of Ancestry, RootsWeb and other genealogical web sites. He develops and teaches classes to the staff on the application of genealogical principles. Gerhard was born in West Germany, grew up in Utah, and graduated from BYU with a degree in Physics. He and his wife, Deon, reside in Orem, Utah.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following:

1. Using Google in Genealogy, by Lila Sowards
2. Free Look-Ups and Free Web Sites, by Laurie Castillo
3. Q&A on Using WorldConnect by Gerhard Ruf
4. Individual Mentoring, including a mini-class on using HeritageQuest Online, by Rae Lee Steinacker
5. Video: (Last month's main presentation) A Practical Guide for Family History Consultants, by DearMYRTLE
6. Legacy 7, by Joel Graham
7. An Introduction to RootsMagic 4, by Sue Maxwel
8. Ancestral Quest 12, by Gaylon Findlay.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Eileen Phelps, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Lynne Shumway, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, answer questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org and the past press releases are at http://blog.uvpafug.org/. For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing - Week 62

Well, the worst just happened to me while my techie son reformatted the hard drive to my computer. I left the external plugged in while he was doing the reformatting and he reformatted that too! That was my backup and now it is all wiped out. I didn't make DVD copies of my hard drive this time because I thought the external was good enough. It worked perfect the last time.

I do have some old backups of my hard drive that I installed but a lot is missing. Thank goodness I have my Mozy backup of my hard drive but it costs to have them send me the disks. I will focus tomorrow on setting up my computer to download right from Mozy. It might take a couple of weeks but it's do-able. Can you believe my luck or what!

I checked on the FamilySearch Indexing website and there were not any new messages. In the indexing program there was one message in My Messages for us.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Semimonthly Message
Date: 15 Oct 2008

Thank you for your excellent work so far on the the 1920 US Federal Census. We are currently indexing records for four states from this census: Alabama, California, Illinois, and Massachusetts. As of today, we have completed 34% of the batches for these projects. Great work!

Please remember while you index and arbitrate these projects:

For the Township field, index all of the information that was eritten to the right of yTownship or other division of county, located in the heading of the document. This includes the information written next to Name of Incorporated Place and Ward of City. Also include words such as: township, precinct, or ward; however, do not include punctuation or symbols.

Click here to see an example of how to index the Township field.

There were no New York projects to work on so I decided to continue my work from last week on the Missouri 1870 U.S. Federal Census. I was able to complete 3 batches tonight that makes 120 records. I have indexed to date 9,337 records to date. If I keep up at this rate I will have no problem reaching 10,000 by the end of the year. Wahoo!!

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

Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy Early Bird Discount

Register now to take advantage of the Early Bird Discount!

The Early Bird Discount ends October 30!

The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy will be January 12-16, 2009 at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. This is a week-long educational experience taught by expert genealogists.

Learn to be more effective:
Using the internet
Researching "beyond the library"
One-on-one-problem-solving for your personal research project
Explore the many possibilities of the records of:
Spain and Latin America
German-speaking areas
England
Focus on:
American records and research
The Gulf South states of Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas.

Classes finish in the afternoon each day allowing time for research at the world renowned FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY, located just two blocks away.

In addition (or if you can't attend the day courses), there are 15 optional evening classes on dynamic topics ranging from maximizing Internet searching to organizing what you find to solving research problems. So much to choose from!

No matter which course you attend, you will be a better genealogist by January 16th. What are you waiting for? For more information or to enroll online, visit www.infouga.org.

If you prefer, you can call toll free 1-888-463-6842. Leave your name and phone number. You will be called within a day, and our helpful administrative assistant will register you for the Institute.