Worldwide Indexing Event: A Huge Success
Contributed By Church News staff writer
Article Highlights
- 116,475 volunteers participated.
- 10,447,887 records were indexed.
- All continents and age groups were represented.
“[These] people selflessly donated their time and skills to help their brothers and sisters around the world gain access to records that will allow them to identify their ancestors.” —Jim Ericson, senior product manager of FamilySearch
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Millions of the world’s historical records are now freely searchable online thanks to the 72-hour FamilySearch Worldwide Indexing Event—10,447,887 records to be exact.
On July 15–17, more than 116,000 people all over the world logged on to transcribe the historical documents, far exceeding the event goal to reach 72,000 volunteers.
“We were astonished at the number of people who participated,” said Jim Ericson, product manager at FamilySearch. “[These] people selflessly donated their time and skills to help their brothers and sisters around the world gain access to records that will allow them to identify their ancestors.”
Volunteers were from every age group and every continent. Participants from all over, including Australia, Italy, and Mexico, shared experiences and photos on the Facebook event page. Many publicized their participation on other social media platforms using the hashtags #theworldsrecords and #fuelthefind and invited others to join them in the event.
“Many who participated expressed joy at being able to make sure the people in the records they indexed will not be forgotten and may be discovered by their living descendants,” said Brother Ericson.
While the worldwide event lasted only three days, FamilySearch needs volunteers to index 365 days a year. For those who missed the event but would like to get involved, visit familysearch.org/indexing.
