Stake Indexing Million Month

WE DID IT!!!  CONGRATULATIONS

AND THANK YOU TO ALL 

1,000,070 NAMES

On October 22 @ 3:27 pm

WHAT A FANTASTIC JOB

I am so proud to be part of this Stake

and to work with all of you in enabling 

the salvation for our ancestors !!!

OCTOBER STATS BY WARD/BRANCH

indexed and arbitrated together

• Clinton                             427
• Edmond First                  9311
• Edmond Second           12124
• no location assign             306
• OKC Fifth                        7895
• OKC First                        3588
• OKC Third                       8503
• University                            25
• Quail Creek                     9470
• Village                             3337
• Woodward                     15704  

Youth by Ward

Edmond First                            55

Edmond Second                      200

OKC Fifth                                  50

OKC First                                    9

Quail Creek                               23

Total for the Month of October 71,027 names, Good Work!

NOVEMBER STAKE TEMPLE MONTH

The Stake Presidency has asked each of us to attend the Temple though-out the month of November as much as we can. There are two days assigned for each Ward in which we are asked to fill the Temple the whole day. Then we are asked to choose one more day, for a total of three days, that we can go to the Temple.To attend as many endowment sessions, Initiatory Sessions  or Sealing sessions as possible each day.Please check with your High Priest Group Leader for your Ward Temple assignment days.

 We should also be preparing our own family file cards to take with us. Did you know that only 2.4% of the  world-wide Church membership is taking their family names to the Temple to do the work? In checking with the Oklahoma City Temple Recorder about our percentage of Family file cards verses the Temple name cards, he told me that at least 50% of the work done in the OKC Temple is for Family File names.  That made me feel very happy, and that is for the whole Temple District, not just our Stake.

Indexing tib bits

Manti, Utah Temple Aug 2, 2012

What a beautiful Temple sitting up on a hill over looking the town  of Manti, Utah, just across the road from the community cemetery. We visited there this summer. 

Regional Stake Single Adult Conference, Oct 20 2012

Joyce Hughes, Martin Dobson, Stacy May, Shara Preston

Today at the Surrey Hills Ward building, next to the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Stake Temple an all day regional Conference took place for the singles over 30. It was a great pleasure  to go and help them with Indexing, one of their service projects.  Evelyn Kelley Aquino helped for two hours in the morning and I was able to be there most of the afternoon. There was a great deal of interest in the Indexing project with at least three indexers working at all times. A great deal of hard work went into planning this event and everyone had a spiritual uplifting experience. Thank you for including Indexing as one of your projects!

NOVEMBER CHALLENGE

225,000 NAMES

IN ONE MONTH!!!!!!

We can do it, but we need all 493 members who have signed up to index to do their part. If everyone helped each person would only have to do 457 names in order to reach our goal.

At the current rate of 99 indexers working in October, they would have to index or arbitrate 2273 names each. Just shows what happens if all work together.

October Indexing Open House

Catch the Vision

Indexing and Family History work lead to the TEMPLE

The Stake Indexing Directors and Stake Family History Center Directors were invited to an Open house in Salt Lake City on October 5th, 2012.The Keynote speaker was Elder Dennis Brimhall, Managing Director of the Family History Department.I was very privileged to be able to attend this all day event and I learned many things.  Some of which I would like to share with all of the Indexers and Arbitrators in Oklahoma City Stake.  This event gave me a whole new perspective on the role of Indexing. It also gave me another chance to visit my children , grandchildren and great grandchildren who live in Utah. :)

• We need to make the connection between Indexing and Family History work and the Temple. 

I was shocked to learn that on a Church-wide basis, only 2.4% of the members are preparing their family names to take to the Temple. That means that over 97% of us are not doing the work for our ancestors.  Why is that? Elder Brimhall said it was because many have dis-connected the "turning of their hearts" and Temple Worship. While it is not a waste of time to take a Temple name through a Temple session, it is by taking our own ancestors names that we will be able to receive both parts of the  Abrahamic Promise; even eternal life.

• The purpose of Indexing and Family History work is to help members perform Vicarious ordinances for their ancestors.   
• Indexing is inseparable from Family History work. It is the driving force, helping family history work soar to new heights.
• Many think that family history work is to be performed primarily by older people.  Elder Bednar said "I know of no age limit described in the scriptures or guidelines " of the church. All members, and all youth are invited to participate in Indexing and Family History work. There were special training sessions available at the Family History Library about implementing  Elder Bednar's Youth challenge to Index.
• Indexing is a valuable tool to use to "Rescue the One".
• Indexing  helps new member retention rates. There is an 80-90% retention rate for new converts who do indexing/family history work and go to the Temple for Baptisms, within a few weeks of their own baptism.
• Indexing was described by one Stake President as " A Temple experience that you can have in your own home".

STAKE INDEXING CHALLENGE FOR NOVEMBER

225,000 NAMES

In case you haven't heard, this is a new challenge that the Stake Presidency has set for November. This activity goes along with our Stake Temple Month, where we are encouraged to attend the Temple as frequently as possible. 

The Indexing challenge  is  to enable all members, active, inactive, home-bound, new members, investigators, or those without a current  Temple recommend,  to experience  that same Spirit  as they would if they could go to a Temple session.

A Challenge TIP!

If you want to get a jump-start on your indexing for November then try this:  After October 25th, download and index some batches and do not send them back. Save them till November 1st, then return all the batches you have worked.

Since there is a 7 day limit on how long you can have a batch in your work page, it is ok not to click on "send batch now" after the computer does the quality check. The batch will sit there till you decide to return it or the 7 day limit.

 Do not wait longer than 7 days  because  the batch will be withdrawn from your computer and you will not get any credit for your work. 

October Pumpkins

Catch The Vision 

November is our Stake Indexing Challenge month to accompany our Stake Temple Month. We have been asked to index 225,000 names during the month of November. That means each Ward or Branch would need to indexing/arbitrating 25,000 names. It can be done and we hope that you are beginning to hear talk about the challenge in your Ward during the month of October.

September Indexing Statistics 

September total = 74,780

Ward                    indexed & Arbitrated names

Clinton                       25

Edmond 1st           9033

Edmond 2nd         6507

Okc 5th                   7873

Okc 1st                    3322

Okc 3rd                 16138

Quail Creek          19621

Village                      673

Woodward            11972

Youth Okc 1st             18

Youth Okc 5th            10

Youth Quail Creek     60

Total YTD Stake (indexed & Arbitrated)

948,830

Arbitrators

September 19th - 26th was the week set aside for arbitrators to try to index 4 million records from the WWI Draft Card project. We almost made it by arbitrating  2 Million names that week. There are still 1.5 Million names to go in that project so we are encouraged to continue working on that project as much as we can. Thank you for taking the time to work on those records as some of the location names in Austria-Hungary were very difficult to figure out. My suggestion is to try a different state if you find it too difficult.

I will be attending an Indexing Open House for Stake Indexing Directors in Salt Lake City on Friday, October 5th. It will be exciting to hear what the director of Family Search has to say and to learn new things, which I will gladly share with all of you.

Autumn trees

Tips for searching the Census Records

If you find yourself having problems finding your ancestors in the census records here are a few tips that I found on the Ancestry.com blog page: Ancestry.com is available in the Family History Center for your use, free of charge.

1. Browse the actual images. You may find relatives living with older neighbors who had the same last name. Scan forward and backward a few pages after you find the persons name to look for others in the family.
2. If searching in ancestry.com, try selecting the " Show advanced" tab on the search form. Then enter just the first name, leave the surname blank, an include a birth year marking the latter as "exact". You might include a place name.
3. Try entering just the surname, with a place name.
4. Try using a wildcard; ie an *, (asterisk) to replace one or more letters in a surname. Indexers sometimes have a hard time reading that old hand writing and could have interpreted a "T" as a "L" or and "R" for a "N". This could make your "Carter" family name to be spelled Cralen !
5. There are two basic approaches to searching the census: 

• One is to start out entering only a few data items in the search fields. Like, only a surname and a place name. (What some like to call fishing in the larger pond, because you get a huge amount of results.) Then add more search items as you narrow down the field.  
• Second approach is to put in as many search items as you know and  get fewer results. Then go back and remove some of the more specific search items to open up more results.

Family Search Tree

Family tree will soon be replacing new.familysearch.org as the way for members to submit names for temple ordinances. It is important to learn how to use this new feature. The benefits include, but not limited to:

• The ability to add, edit , and delete relationships.
• The ability to discuss and show sources for family tree information. (I consider this the most important addition)
• A tool for receiving notifications on people added and new sources.
• A tool to know when someone makes a change to your data.
• Tools to qualify and submit names for temple work

Need help learning how to use this new feature? Contact your Ward Family History Consultants and visit the Family History Center with it's expanded new hours. 

You can also try out the new system at Family Tree Training Site on www.familysearch.org