September Indexing Update

Stake Days of Thanksgiving Indexing Challenge

The Stake Presidency have made a few changes to our Annual Days of Thanksgiving Temple Trek this year. They have requested that, as a Stake we index 225,000 names in the month of November. 

That means each Ward and Branch in the Stake will have to index 25,000 names that month.  I know that may sound like a lot for some of the Wards and Branches, but many of you are already doing that amount and more.  It is a very good goal, but it means that each Ward and Branch will have to really get busy in November to accomplish their 25,000 names. It can be done. If you have 25 indexers in your Ward, each one  would only have to index and/or arbitrate 1000 names in the month. That is a good goal and I think we can all do that. I also encourage the Youth of the Stake and the University Ward to pick up the Challenge and see who can do the most.

Along with this Indexing Challenge, they are requesting that the Stake make every effort to attend the Temple Sessions as often as possible through-out the whole month, not just on a specific day.

So prepare you family names to go to the Temple in November and make it a family affair.

Immigration & Naturalization Indexing Tips

If you have switched from the 1940 Census records to the Immigration & Naturalization records you may have seen the notice that was sent out by Family Search when you log into the home page on How to index the Place of Birth or Nationality .  These two data items are listed separately on the upper left side of the record.  ALWAYS select Place of Birth if given, only select Nationality if Place of Birth is missing.  Also in addition to the info given in the notice from Family Search, it has come to my attention and I verified this with the Help Service at 1-866-406-1830 in SLC, you should type what you see.  Let me give you some examples of what you might see and how you should index it:

• Place of birth might say: Canton, Ohio    You index: Canton Ohio   Do not change it to USA or United States and omit the comma.
• Place of birth might be   blank    Nationality might say: Italian  You index: Italian  not Italy
• Place of birth might say: Grt. Brit     You Index: Grt Brit   do no expand abbreviations even if you are sure of what they are, omit the period aft Grt. 

These rules are different from how we have put in place names before, so please read the field helps if you are not sure. These records have been pretty easy to work on, once you know how the data should be entered.

Family Search Training

Do you feel like you need some help with the changes in Family Search and Family Search Tree?  I know that I do.  Well mark these dates on your calendar and sign up to go to the Oklahoma History Center at 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive, by the State Capitol. I will add the website below.

 Our own Donna Waddle of OKC 5th Ward will be teaching the classes. they will be  specifically; Family Search for Beginners, and a class  in Family Search for Advanced users. The cost is $10.00 and you get a lunch with that.  Our Family History Center is reaching out to the community helping us to become a Divine Destination in Family History Research. Here are the dates:

Wednesday, September 26th Class for FamilySearch Beginners

Wednesday 24th, class for FamilySearch Advanced users

To go to the website for the Oklahoma History Center to learn more about these classes and other free programs and research facilities they offer click on the following link: The Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City, OK