February 2013 Indexing Reports

Sketch of New Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple - under construction 2013

Psychologists measuring children's resilience found that the kids who "knew the most about their family history" were best able to handle stress.
The more children know about their family's history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives and the higher their self-esteem. The reason: These children have a strong sense of "Intergenerational self" - they understand that they belong to something bigger than themselves, and that families naturally experience both highs and lows.
(taken from a magazine on family life and submitted by Jared Smith, High Councilman in charge of Family History in our Stake)

A big welcome to our new Okc Third Ward Group Administrator: Shirley Corrigan. I know Shirley will do a wonderful job as she has been an indexer and arbitrator for a long time. Let's get the Youth in Third Ward going on Indexing!!


March Madness Stake Youth Indexing Challenge

Indoor Rock Climbing
We already have our first Youth to complete the requirements to go Rock Climbing!  Courtney Wilkinson from the Village Ward Indexed  1584 names from Feb 24th - Feb 27th. Fantastic !  Great Work!! Courtney has also been given rights to be an arbitrator and is doing a fantastic job.  Indexing creates a love of family history.
Other youth can also become arbitrators, ask me how.

March Madness Stake Indexing Challenge
has begun.
Each unit in the Stake will have to index and/or arbitrate 45,455 names to reach our Stake goal of 500,000 names by April 6th. The count down began on Feb 24th and ends on April 6th. We had 41 days to accomplish this goal, time is ticking down. If you have dropped off the face of the indexing world, please come back and  help by indexing this month. Watch your Ward bulletin for  announcements and Ward incentives.

Stake Indexing Report for February

Stake Total =  58,169

Ward/Branch                           total names Indexed & Arbitrated                                            

Clinton                                       1222

Edmond First                             7654

Edmond Second                         2871

Okc Fifth                                    3012

Okc First                                    5746

Okc Third                                   3497

Quail Creek                                7871

Village                                        3467

Woodward                                18513

Youth By Ward                       total names Indexed & Arbitrated  

Edmond First                             550

Edmond Second                          35

Okc Fifth                                     63

Okc First                                    114

Quail Creek                                387

Village                                      3107  

Great work to the Woodward Branch Indexers and Arbitrators, and to the Village Ward Youth. Thanks for leading the way in indexing for the rest of the Stake.

March Madness Challenge

March Madness Challenge

Begins Today Feb 24, 2013 !!

President Baclawski at Awards Social Feb 23rd.

The March Madness Stake Indexing Challenge was announced by President Baclawski at the Indexing Awards Social Saturday night. The Challenge for the Stake is to index 500,000 names from Feb 24th ending on April 6th, General Conference week-end. That gives us 10 extra days to make our goal. Each Ward/Branch will have a goal of 45,455 names. With 11 units participating, in the Stake we should be able to to that.

In addition to that announcement President Baclawski also added a new challenge for all of the youth.

Rock Climbing at OKC Rock Center

For each youth who can index 1,500 names in the same time frame as the Stake Challenge, Feb 24th - April 6th, he will take them to do some indoor Rock climbing in Oklahoma City.

Looking for a new project to work on that isn't too difficult? Try the U S Resisters of Enlistment in the US Army 1798 - 1913.

The hand writing is easy to read, their are usually 40 names in a batch and not many data items to enter. 

Here is an example of where you will find the data fields on the image,circled in blue.

• You may have to add some lines, but do not delete the original 40 lines. If the image does not have 40 records then mark the remaining lines as blank. All blank lines go at the end of the batch.  
• You can find the full names of enlistment places in the Project Information - click on Summary Updates. spell out all abbreviations. Try googling them to see how they are spelled.

Here are a few enlistment abbreviations that I saw:

Pres SF, Cal  = Presidio San Francisco, California

Ft Slocum, NY - Fort Slocum, New York

Ft Assinnboine, MT = Fort Assinboine, Montana

R I Ars, Ill = Rock Island Arsenal , Illinois

Col Brcks, OH = Columbus Barracks, Ohio

Jeff Bkcs, MO = Jefferson Barracks, Missouri
I.T. on these kinds of records means Indian Territory. 

If you get a list of Indian Scouts and you can't tell if they listed a Surname or a Given name. Put the name in the Given name field and mark the Surname as blank. 

Call your Ward Group Administrator, or the Stake Director 405-367-7159, or Salt Lake City 1-866-406-1830 for help.

Youth Indexing Project

Eagle Scout Indexing Project

 Thomas Taylor of Edmond 2nd Ward will be holding a special indexing  day as his Eagle Scout Project in the Family Search Center at the Oklahoma City Stake Center, for all the Stake youth and anyone else who would like to come. Time and date will be announced later.

 The goal for that day will be to index 5,000+ names.  Thomas hopes that all the Youth will come, even those who have never indexed. There will be a need for adult indexers and arbitrators to come to help the youth learn how to index. Eagle Scouts are asked to step up and help Thomas with this event. You can call Thomas @ 405-341-3000 to let him know you can help.

Please encourage all youth to attend, and all Oklahoma City Stake Indexers to attend. Let's help make Thomas' Eagle Project a success.

        The March Madness  Stake Challenge is coming!!

image from Microsoft 

Learn more about it at the Stake Indexing Awards Social on Feb. 23rd.

More will be posted on this blog about the specifics following the announcement by the Stake Presidency

Pathway to Family Research Conference

A Fireside with our Area Family History Advisors
 Gerald and Mary Abram will be held

at the Stake Center for ALL members

April 12th, 2013 @ 7:00 pm,Friday night

Conference starts at 9:00 am , Saturday April 13th.

See your Family History Consultant for a pre-registration form and to learn what FREE Classes will be provided. If you want to learn how to use Family Tree this is the place to be!

OKC Stake Indexing Updates Jan 2013

photo from photokonok

WELCOME TO A NEW YEAR OF INDEXING 2013

MAY YOUR YEAR BE FULL OF SWEET EXPERIENCES AND SHARED JOYS!

JANUARY 2013 INDEXING RESULTS

STAKE TOTAL  66,551 NAMES

Our Stake goal of 2 million names for 2013 will mean that each of the 11 units in the Stake would have to index and arbitrate 15,152 names a month, for a Stake total each month of 166,672 names a month.

We did not make it this month, but what the heck is happening in WOODWARD?   That is the only Unit in the Stake who made their goal with 29,769, names. Great work for the Branch with only 5  indexers working in January!! The Spirit of Elijah is strong and I think the members have caught the vision. Thanks for setting the example for the rest of the Stake to follow.

January Results by Ward

• Clinton                                 1475   
• Edmond 1st                          7230
• Edmond 2nd                         1632
• Okc 5th                                 1649
• Okc 1st                                  7059
• Okc 3rd                                  4153
• University                                141
• Quail Creek                            6282
• Village                                    4705
• Woodward                            29769          

Youth Indexers Results by Ward

• Edmond 1st                                             379 
• Okc 1st                                                  1010
• Village                                                     118    

Stake Seminary Challenge 

The Stake Presidents Challenge to the youth in Seminary is to index 25,000 names as a seminary class. President B will then come and fix you breakfast. Need help? call your Ward Group Administrator, or stop by the FHC on a Wednesday night and the consultants will be happy to help you or answer your questions. Or you can call Lois Gilbert @ 367-7159 for help.

We are going to have a Party

Stake Indexing Awards Social

February 23rd @ 7:00 PM

Stake Center in Oklahoma City

Cultural Hall.

Invitations will be mailed out this week to the Top 5 Indexers and the Top 5 Arbitrators and the Top 5 Youth Indexers. The top 5 youth are encouraged to bring their family with them. All High Priest Group Leaders and their wives, and the Indexing Group Administrators and a guest are invited to attend. President Graves will be handing out Awards to each of those honored above and refreshments will be served. Last year was the first year and everyone enjoyed the evening. It is just the Stakes way of saying thank you for helping to serve the Lord with this invaluable and eternal work.

Arbitrator and Group Administrator Training

The week-end of February 16th Is our Semi-Annual Stake Conference. On Saturday the 16th there are always training sessions for the Brethren . So I thought, what a good time to plan a special Training session for Arbitrators and Group Administrators in the Family History Center from 2:30 - 4:00 PM.

Please plan to attend this very important meeting as there will be handouts, pass-along cards, and time for questions and answers. Anyone who wants to learn more about Indexing and maybe becoming an  arbitrator is welcome to attend. We need more arbitrators.

Family Search Blog PageFamily Search Blog!!

Indexing hints and Mobile Devices

Family Trees 

The 3rd Annual Roots Tech Conference  will be held in Salt Lake City on March 21st - 23rd, 2013. It will have over 250 classes and many vendors will be  there with the latest gadgets and electronic devices available for Genealogists and Family History Buffs. Learn how to get organized, present family stories, preserve your records, digitized your files, use your digital camera and scanner,  and  learn new research techniques. Of special interest for the families are two classes:  "10 Fun Family History Activities", and "How To Get Your Teenager Involved in your Family History". 

The cost for three  full days of learning and sharing is $149.00. If you can go to this, it is a great conference to attend. For more information try the following link: Rootstech Conference

If you can't afford to go to Utah for a family history conference, just wait as the OKC Stake Family Research Center is going to have a free day long conference in April. More details later.

Hand Held Devices for Indexing
photo credit: blakespot via photopin cc

If you or any of your friends are using the app from FamilySearch on your hand held devices just remember that those records are not currently counted in our Stake Indexing numbers. Please send me a personal email at  lois.gilbert67@gmail.com to let me know who has been indexing in your Ward and not getting credit for their work. If you could give me their name and the number of names they submitted I can call Salt Lake City and find out why their numbers are not showing up in my reports. If they were done on anything but a traditional desktop or laptop then that may be the reason they are not showing up in our reports.

FamilySearch reports that the Beta test on the App for mobile devices was done to  find out three things:

• To gauge the overall interest in mobile indexing
• get feedback on the product
• determine the relative effectiveness of the mobile approach

What they learned was that there is a great interest in mobile indexing, but that the amount of indexing is, on average, far less than the most traditional desktop indexers. They also learned that producing those one-name snippets, is relatively expensive for FamilySearch, verses the traditional batch images.

So what does that mean for the future of the mobile App? Right now Family Search has restricted the downloading of the app. They are taking all of the comments and suggestions and working on a better system, that may produce a whole new way of indexing, on a desktop as well. They realize that there are many people who may never index the traditional way and would like them to have an avenue to continue their indexing. Interestingly that App was downloaded 150,000 times and more than 21,000 individuals used it each month.

When indexing the U S New York State 1865 Census,please note that when the relationship  is shown as CHILD you should not put in daughter or son, but rather you should just type in the word CHILD. 
The word CHILD is not in the drop-down list so it will turn red, but you can wait till you get to the end of your batch and in Quality Check you can say "Accept all" for CHILD and it will approve that entry for every place you added it.
Also remember that all blank lines should go to the bottom of the form.  
There are always two pages, one on the left and one on the right side of the image. 

New Year: Indexing Report for 2012

Happy New Year from 

Family Search

Oklahoma City Oklahoma Stake Total for 2012

1,362,326

Names 

A big "Thank you" to all of the Stake Indexers and Arbitrators that helped to make 2012 our best year ! 

December 2012 Statistics
74,107 names total

Ward                                  total names

Clinton                                                 3177

Edmond First                                  12,381

Edmond Second                                5959

Okc Fifth                                            1985

Okc First                                          11,921

Okc Third                                        10,984 

University                                                20

Quail Creek                                         7457

Village                                                  4298

Woodward                                        11,814

Youth - Ward                                   total names 

Clinton                                                  16

Edmond First                                     767

Edmond Second                                   73

Okc Fifth                                                75

Okc First                                              878

Quail Creek                                            20

Village                                                 1819

We had a high number, 125, of batches returned in the month of December. I suggest that everyone open their " My Artibration" tab and try to figure out why you may have had a batch returned. It is important to discover our mistakes and ask for help from your Ward Group Administrator or from the Salt Lake City Help Desk. You can contact the help desk by calling this toll free number: 1-866-406-1830.

 If you would like to call me I am more than happy to help. My number is 405-367-7159. Please do not try to start a new project without reading the "Project Information" directions or the "Field Help" guidelines on each data item first. Each project has new and different directions.

2012 Top 5 Indexers and Arbitrators

Indexers:

1. Woodward - Curtis Ray Williams - 29,304
2. Quail Creek - Nora Muzingo - 27,292
3. Edmond First - Jessie Crawford - 21,082
4. Woodward - Melissa Hart - 17,339
5. Clinton - Coreena Gilliland - 15,193

Arbitrators:

1. Okc Fifth - Mary Butts - 154,046
2. Okc Third - Gene Bushman - 132,703
3. Woodward - Tamara Windholz - 92,348
4. Edmond Second - Gary Howell - 71,374
5. Okc First - Evelyn K Aquino - 70,093

2012 Top 5 Youth Indexers

1. Edmond First - Megan Green - 2971
2. Village - Courtney Wilkinson - 2463
3. Okc First - Emma Aquino - 2270
4. Edmond First - Chandler Haymore - 2238
5. Okc First - Nate Connelly - 2128

Invitations will be mailed to all of the top 5 individuals announcing the Stake Indexing Awards Social on February 23rd. The top 5 are welcome to bring their spouse or another person, and the Youth are encouraged to bring their family with them. Details will be in the invitation.

2013 Stake Goal

2 Million Names

Each Unit in the Stake will need to do

15,152 names a month for a total of 181,824 names in the year.

We need everyone's help to reach that new goal. Only three Wards in the Stake were able to achieve that in 2012.

If you know of anyone who might like to try indexing please introduce them to it and encourage them to participate in a Temple Experience in their own home. This is an ideal thing for New Converts, homebound, people preparing to attend the the Temple, or folks who are unemployed. Many blessings can come from participation in Indexing.

Check out the Blog for Familysearch by clicking on this link:

https://familysearch.org/blog/en/

Stake Youth Challenge

Christmas lights at Temple Square taken by K Miller

STAKE TOP 5 YOUTH

INDEXERS 

1. Megan Green - Edmond First Ward - 2971
2. Emma Aquino - Okc First Ward - 2270
3. Nate Connelly - Okc First Ward - 2100
4. Daniel Aquino - Okc 4th Branch - 1646
5. Chandler Haymore - Edmond First Ward - 1521

This list is subject to change before the end of the year. You have until Dec 31, 2012 to make this list. The top five youth will be invited to the Stake Indexing Awards Social in February. 

Stake Seminary Challenge

The Stake Presidency is calling all Seminary Students to an indexing challenge. Beginning on Dec 5th each seminary group is challenged to index 25,000 names. When your group reaches that goal President Baclawski will come and fix breakfast for your group. This includes Home Study Seminary students as well.

President B will fix breakfast each time your Seminary group does 25,000 names. If your group reaches 100,000 names he will think of a really good reward!

Training will be available in Seminary and we hope you will get a good start over the holiday break from school. Each Seminary teacher and the Stake President will receive monthly reports of your progress. 

 Stake Goal for February

1,000 Stake Indexers !!

Currently at 627