Indexing Record

Family Search indexing set a goal to index/arbitrate 5 million names on July 2nd. Nearly 46K people participated in the historic event. They believed that no one had ever come close to indexing that many names in a 24 hour period. Indexers from around the globe participated. The final tally?

7,258,151 Indexed


3,082,728 Arbitrated

10,340,879 Total


They hit the 5 million mark in 16 hours and then just kept going. What an amazing effort!

What is indexing? From the Family Search website:

Every person matters. Perhaps it is this feeling that prompts millions to seek out their family history. For most, records of their ancestors provide key links to their past. An army of volunteers from around the world is now helping to save and make these records available. Using our online system, they are able to easily extract data from valuable records and provide free searchable indexes—all from the convenience of their homes.

At the moment, most of my indexing is from the 1940 US Census. They have photocopied images like this:

Indexers take the information from this page and input it into records that can be searched by others on-line. Each sheet contains about 40 records and an average person can go through a page in less than 30 minutes, or if you're my wife, in about 15 minutes or less.

If you're interested in becoming an indexer you can go here and register: https://indexing.familysearch.org/newuser/nuhome.jsf?3.13.3

It's a worth while hobby that will have a huge benefit for people trying to trace their ancestors. 

Congratulations on the amazing record fellow indexers!