If you are new to genealogy, then you should take the time to check out FamilySearch. It is free to use, and there are frequent updates of and additions to their website. It is a great place for a new genealogist to get started working on his or her family tree. If you are a skilled genealogist, it may have been a while since you used FamilySearch. Here is a little of what is new at FamilySearch this week.
FamilySearch posted a new update about their indexing project in their blog. It was posted on June 15, 2012, and is titled: “1940 Census Indexing Progress Report”. As of that date, volunteers have indexed 63.98% of the names in the 1940 United States Census. A total of 88,924,341 names have been indexed and arbitrated. A total of 133,655 indexers have signed up to work on this project.
Right now, FamilySearch has added South Dakota to the list of states that are fully indexed and searchable. This brings their total to 20 states. Those states are: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming.
This was followed by more recent blog post that announced that FamilySearch has, as of June 20, 2012, added four more states to group that is searchable. The new states are: Alabama, Indiana, Maine, and North Dakota. This brings the total of searchable states to 24.
As of June 20, 2012, FamilySearch volunteers have indexed and arbitrated a total of 95,941,918 names. The number of people who have signed up to help with indexing has increased from 133,655 on July 15, 2012, to 137,569 on July 20, 2012.
On June 19, 2012, FamilySearch had a live webinar that featured Robert Kehrer. He discussed the IGI, the Library Catalog, and a fairly new feature of the FamilySearch website that is called My Source Box. Originally, FamilySearch intended to post a link to where people could view this webinar after it first aired.
However, it appear that they are having audio problems and other technical difficulties. So, you can’t watch this particular webinar right now. It seems several people have spent time trying to find it. I would recommend waiting until FamilySearch announces that this webinar is ready for viewing, before you try searching for it again. It simply isn’t available at this time.
Image by Darren D on Flickr