Volunteers Index More than 7 Million Records during 2017 Event

Contributed By FamilySearch.org

• 7 November 2017

Adults participate in a worldwide indexing event.

• Print
• Share 
  • E-mail
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Over seven million new family history records will now be available on FamilySearch.org thanks to volunteers around the world who participated in the 2017 Worldwide Indexing Event on October 20–22.

Throughout the event, nearly 80,000 people worked to transcribe historical documents to make them searchable online, including over 9,000 first-time FamilySearch indexing volunteers. Participants represented 116 countries, 10 languages, and all ages, making this a true worldwide event. The following number of volunteers joined the event:

These people selflessly dedicated their time over a three-day period to make essential genealogy records available to the public. With their help, countless people worldwide will be able to discover their ancestors.

Many volunteers took to Facebook and other social media websites to share their progress. Thom Reed, a FamilySearch employee who hosted a family indexing event, said, “We ended on such a high note tonight being able to index with friends! Congrats to everyone from around the world who participated!”

Others posted pictures of youth groups indexing together or published comments expressing the joy indexing brought them. One person posted that she indexed four times the number of records she typically indexes in a day! To see some of the posts people shared as well as FamilySearch updates that went live throughout the event, visit the Facebook event page.

Volunteers can help others find their ancestors by indexing records throughout the year. If you missed the event, you can still join the cause of indexing records.

As Dorothy Gurney commented, “[The worldwide indexing event] has sparked in me the desire to continue and do more—much more!” Visit familysearch.org/indexing to get started or to continue your efforts.

If you missed the event, you can still volunteer anytime to index records to help others find their ancestors. Just go to familysearch.org/indexing to begin.