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SALT LAKE CITY — FamilySearch anticipates at least 100,000 people will volunteer for its second annual Worldwide Indexing Event, which will help family history researchers make millions of discoveries.
This event will teach people how they can "Fuel the Find" by making information from historical documents easily searchable online," according to FamilySearch.
FamilySearch likened indexed historical records to fuel, explaining that it powers genealogical search engines like FamilySearch and helps people locate missing or unknown pieces of their genealogy.
This year's focus will shift to indexing records in international languages aside from English. There are 20 times more records in English than in every other language combined, FamilySearch reported. Those who speak other languages, particularly French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, are encouraged to volunteer.
FamilySearch indexing is offering "carefully chosen indexing projects" in these languages to assist those with language skills in beginning their work. Novice and expert English-speaking indexers who know these languages can read new training guides to quickly learn how to index these records.
"Family history research in English-speaking countries is a dream compared to research in other parts of the world," Mike Judson, manager of FamilySearch's indexing workforce development, said in a statement. "Our goal is to make research for our friends in other lands as joyful and productive as it is in the United States, Great Britain, and other English-speaking countries. To do this we need tens of thousands of volunteers with well-developed language skills to step forward and use those talents to bless others' lives. We have the records — now we just need the hands."
Related:
FamilySearch certifies locally created 'Relative Finder' app
FamilySearch.org recently certified a Web application developed at BYU that may draw more people to do family history.Anyone can participate by indexing at least one batch or arbitration batch sometime during Aug. 7-14. To learn more about this event and indexing, visit FamilySearch.
Indexed records enable FamilySearch to provide users with "highly relevant and accurate hints," which basically brings their ancestors' records to them automatically.
FamilySearch said every name that is indexed is another drop of fuel that can eventually help someone find a missing ancestor promptly and with ease.
FamilySearch indexing is one of the biggest and most successful volunteer transcription programs ever. Since 2007, volunteers have indexed over 1.3 billion records. Nearly 92,000 people participated last year during the first Worldwide Indexing Event.
