FamilySearch Indexing

FamilySearch Indexing is a distributed volunteer driven project established and run by the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The project aims to create searchable digital indexes for scanned images of historical documents. The documents are drawn primarily from a collection of 2.4 million microfilms made of historical documents from 110 countries and principalities.

Volunteers install free software on their home computers, download images from the site, type the data they read from the image into the software, and submit their work back to the site. The data is eventually made publicly and freely available on one of the FamilySearch web sites for use in genealogical research.

Types of records

The FamilySearch Indexing Project has so far focused primarily on indexing state and federal census records from the United States of America, though Census records from Mexico, Birth, Death and Marriage records from Ireland, and vital records from Nicaragua have also been indexed.

In addition to the general indexing projects, the site also partners with other genealogical organizations to complete specialized indexing projects. Partners have included the Arkansas Genealogical Society, the Black History Museum, the Indiana Genealogical Society, the Ohio Genealogical Society, the Utah Genealogical Association, among others.

External links

* http://www.familysearchindexing.org - The FamilySearch Indexing main site
* http://www.royert.org/FSI.html - Instructions for setting up the program to index in Spanish
* http://search.labs.familysearch.org - See where the indexed records are going when you are done indexing them