May Indexing is Fantastic !

Just to update you on our progress in May. As a Stake Indexing team we have already indexed over 1/2 MILLION names for this year.  There are now 409 registered indexers.96 of them are actively indexing.

Is that exciting or what??

Thank you all for your wonderful work and spirit in       doing this great work.

                                                     
Something New is happening in our Stake with indexing !  We are changing all of the Ward Indexing Specialist to be GROUP ADMINISTRATORS..  This will be a tremendous help to me with sending out reports each month to the Bishop's and High Priest Group Leaders.  There will be a training session at the Stake Center on June 2 at 9:00 am. I will send an email to remind you.

Taken from Ernest Hemingway's Balcony in Key West, FL

I spoke in the Clinton Ward last Sunday  about indexing/family history, and the wonderful tool it can be to open new doors to people who are investigating the Church. Everyone likes to talk about their families and news about Family History work is something we can all share with them. 

1940 Census updates and tips

Check those Place names in Column 17. Same House means they lived in the same house on April 1, 1935. Same Place means that they lived in the same area, not necessarily in the house they are in when the census was taken.  After you enter Same House, or Same Place  you should use "Ctl B" to enter a blank in the next two data fields, even if something is written in for the county name, or state name. 

ARBITRATORS: Be careful with the New York Census records. You should look at how the indexers put  in the above information. Both indexers could have done the same thing and arbitration will not show up as a mistake. See my message on the indexing page about handling those records. 

 

New and Interesting Newspaper Research Site

There is a new Site out there that may be of interest to you in your research. It is called Chronicling America Historic, American Newspapers and covers newspapers that have been digitized and put on-line for you to see. It covers American Newspapers from 1836-1990 and tells you how to find newspapers dating back to 1690 - today. This project is part of the Library of Congress collections.   Check it out at this link: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

April 2012 Stake Indexing Statistics

Nauvoo Temple

April 2012 Stake Indexing Statistics

This has been a fantastic month for indexing in our Stake. Thanks to all of you for your hard work. Every name we can index or arbitrate provides a way for researches to locate their families and prepare their names for Temple work.
 The statistics for each Ward are listed below.

• WARD                         INDEXED      ARBITRATED
• CLINTON                   6480                1765
• EDMOND 2ND           4248                9973
• EDMOND 1ST            3652                9857
• OKC 1ST                   10277              12795
• OKC 3RD                    4712              12052
• OKC 4TH BRANCH   3856               5046
• OKC 5TH                    4021             16512
• OKC UNIV.                  371
• QUAIL CREEK         10695               9138
• VILLAGE WARD        2488
• WOODWARD             7800              7914

     GRAND TOTAL 148,797 NAMES. 

A new record for the Oklahoma City Stake. This includes what the Youth have been doing. See their numbers for the month below:  

Youth Indexing Stats for April        

WARD                                        NAMES INDEXED

• CLINTON                                1
• EDMOND 1ST                     1742
• OKC 1ST                             1324
• OKC 4TH BRANCH           1075
• OKC 5TH                             310 
• VILLAGE                              530         

Report on Progress of the 1940 Census Project

Just one month ago today, April 2,  the 1940 census images were released to the public by the National Archives. Since they were already digitized it did not take very long for FamilySearch to make them available. By April 13th all of the states had been made available to begin indexing. As reported by Thomas McGill of Familysearch.org, we are doing a fantastic job indexing these records. He recently announced that the original goal was to try to complete indexing all the 1940 census records within 6 months. He said that from April 2 through April 19th we, as a worldwide group of indexers, had already indexed 41 million records and arbitrated 19 million. At this rate the project may reach it's goal in less than 6 months. 

To read more about this project please go to http://ancestoryinsider.blogspot.com. The link can be found on the right side of this page. Sign up to get their weekly updates. 

The concern now is having enough arbitrators working to be able to meet that 6 month goal. If you have indexed at least 2000 names then you might want to consider becoming an arbitrator. At the present time we have 396 indexers signed up in our Stake, of that number only 96 people indexed in April. We also have included in that total 28 arbitrators who are working very hard in April. Their goal is to arbitrate 10 batches for every 1 batch that they index.  If you are wondering what an arbitrator does come to our next meeting, which I will be notifying you about next week.  If you have an interest in becoming an arbitrator please email me and I will work with you to reach that goal. 

2012 Ice Cream Socials

 The Ice Cream Socials will continue for each Ward who can surpass the "Magic Number" this year. That number is set at 150% of what your goal was for last year. That means your Ward/Branch needs to do more than the Magic Number in one month. The youth totals will be added into the Ward totals. I have calculated the "Magic Numbers" for 2012 and they are shown below: Good Luck.

    Ward                  Magic Number

• Clinton                               29,091
• Edmond 1st                       14,085
• Edmond 2nd                         7062
• OKC 1st                           47,454
• OKC 3rd                          24,621
• OKC 4th Branch               11,100
• OKC 5th                           13,059
• OKC University                   2,049 
• Quail Creek                       46,797
• Village                               25,839  
• Woodward Branch              9,627

 Looking over these numbers and the results for April it looks like we have 2 Wards and 1 Branch that have already met their goal and will be having an ice cream social in the near future. President Baclawski and I look forward to coming to your Ward with a bucket of ice cream to just say "Thanks to You" for participating in the Stake Indexing program. A date will be set-up with your Bishop or Branch President and you will be notified at a later date when to expect us. Remember your Ward should  provide the paper products and any toppings you would like.