Most genealogists I know are very grateful to the LDS church for microfilming so many records around the world. Now we can express our thanks by assisting with their world indexing project this weekend. Details are on this page https://familysearch.org/indexing/get-started-indexer

You have to download their indexing software to participate. I found the video at the bottom left of the start page called Quick Start Video most helpful.

My first effort was indexing some 1880 Chicago mortality records …

The instructions were clear that they did not want me to expand abbreviations, so Eng did not get fixed to England. I did however replace “do” which is how they did ditto back then, with the country name that was above (U.S.).

I like that you can do this in small chunks. So you can stop and start whenever you have a bit of time. Most “batches” take less than an hour to complete.

Here is what fellow san diegan and genealogist Randy Seaver says about this project: http://www.geneamusings.com/2016/07/familysearch-recruits-100000-to-save.html and what DNA expert Judy Russell has to say http://www.legalgenealogist.com/2016/07/14/calling-all-indexers/

I have heard complaints from those with Macs that they could not get the downloaded programs to work, but it is fine on my PC.

Here is why I am so grateful. When I first started doing genealogy, I wanted to find my german jewish roots. So I wandered into the LDS family history library in New York City and found that they had the microfilm of the Munich synagogue records on hand. Within an hour I had found the record of my great-great-grandparents marriage (shown below) and many more family records. This is easy I thought. Hah, I had much to learn!

I plan to put in a few hours helping this weekend. How about you?

Disclaimer My brother Shipley works for familysearch.org …