Challenge Update

Mount Timpanogos Temple,

American Fork, Utah 2010

Ice Cream Social Challenge Update

The April indexing  is going SUPER !!! I have checked to see how the Wards and Branch are doing and I can tell you that there are several units that have already passed their "Magic Number" Goal.  That is wonderful and as soon as May rolls around I will be posting those results so you can see if your Ward or Branch is going to have that Ice Cream Social. My suggestion is to keep up the good work. If your Ward doesn't make it this month, don't give up, you have till the end of the year.

Messages from Church Headquarters

For those of you who have been busy indexing you may have seen the recent messages from Familysearch headquarters about problems they had with the recent move to their new data center. I would just like to briefly reiterate what that  means to all of us:

• Arbitrators: if you download a batch where key A or Key B is totally empty. Send back the batch that is empty. Do not try to index it to "fix it" and then submit it. What happens is the data sets do not match. This means that the empty batch, even though you indexed it, would be returned to be re-indexed again, so you would be wasting your time.  Remember that Arbitrators are not suppose to be Indexing , they are suppose to be matcing the lines, and editing the typos on the records.
• Indexers:  You may download a batch that is completely finished. You should check this batch carefully to make sure it is correct then submit it. These batches were also part of the problem  of data sets not matching, that was caused by the move.
• WWII RECORDS:  As soon as they fix the problem with the arbitration of these records I am sure we will be seeing more to be indexed.

Family Search Evaluation Survey
Our Stake is part of a select group who were asked to participate in a survey to help familysearch.org improve their search capabilities. We can only participate in the survery till the 20th of April. If you try this survery you will need to read the FIELD HELPS for each data item.
It took me awhile to figure out what I was suppose to do. Briefly they show you a query, on the left, that was made in Familysearch.org and ask you to rate the 8 different results on the right, on a scale of 1-5.  There are two different queries in each batch, so you would do the rating 16 times, and you would get credit on your indexing for 16 names.  It is a bit challenging, but if you have time try at least one batch.
 I am personally glad to see that familysearch.org wants to be able to give the best results and not thousand of random results, most of which are not even close matches.  Please read the Project Information and Field Helps before trying this survery. 

Disclaimer

If any of you read the Area Family History Newletter this month about our Stake Indexing Program you may have seen where it said that our Stake covers a 77 county area in Oklahoma. That was a typo on my part, it should have said 7 county area. I am sure President Graves is glad that he doesn't have to cover the whole state. Sorry about that.