It’s amazing how much genealogy work can be accomplished when a bunch of volunteers all work together. Earlier this week, volunteers helped index a record setting amount of data into the FamilySearch Indexing program. This is one of many enhancements that are coming soon to the FamilySearch website.
Around 550 volunteers sign up with the FamilySearch website daily to help out. This week, over 1.7 million records were indexed by volunteers. 700,000 of those records were arbitrated into FamilySearch’s Indexing program on Monday, March 21, 2011. This is the highest number of records ever done in a single day. FamilySearch is one of the genealogy websites that is constantly adding new records, so it’s easy to see why it is so important to have volunteers helping out.
If you would like to help out, the best place to begin is by going to the FamilySearch website, and reading over the information on their “Giving Back” page. It’s simple to do, and can be done from the comfort of your own home. You start with a batch that contains somewhere between ten and fifty records. There are instructions on their website, and a list of frequently asked questions that you can read over, for more information.
Sometime in the next few weeks, FamilySearch will release a beta version of their Indexing program. It will come with an upgrade called “My Accuracy”, which will help people who use the program to determine the accuracy of the records that have been inputted by other users. The Indexing program is going to have it’s own RSS feed, and will include an “Invite a Friend” button, so you can share it with your friends.
In addition to the Indexing program, FamilySearch is working on mobile apps. People can use those apps to do indexing from their mobile phones, when they are not at home and sitting in front of their computers. This could be very useful for volunteers who love doing genealogy work, and want to do it in their spare time. I can see someone using this app while on a lunch break from work, or while waiting for a bus.
FamilySearch is also planning on making a Facebook app that would allow volunteers to do some indexing through Facebook. It has become increasingly popular for companies to have a Facebook page, and a whole lot of people are actively using Facebook every day. This sounds like a good way for FamilySearch to reach interested genealogists, who want to volunteer their time. The FamilySearch Facebook page will have project updates listed on it, and will be a place where users can interact with each other, and use the discussion boards to ask and answer questions.
Image by Dave Pape on Flickr