August 2025

We cannot look to and focus upon Jesus Christ as the “mark” if we only see ourselves.

-- David A. Bednar

Redeeming the Dead

Indexing. Have you heard of it?

Of course you have, I have too, but I haven't done much of it. I was wondering why it mattered, and you know what I found? It matters a lot! 

Maybe one of the most important things about it is that it can help people come closer to the Savior by getting involved in the actual process of indexing, that is, in actually doing the work.

So we thought that we would dedicate this issue of the newsletter to the subject of "Indexing" for that reason mainly, but also to improve our familiarity with some of the answers to the "why" questions that often come with it. Do you know personally someone who could benefit?

Take a look at this video that we ran across to get some ideas about what can happen to a person's life when the Lord gets involved in "Redeeming the Dead" - promoting a feeling of connecton to ancestors and creating a sense of spiritual fulfillment ... and using something as seemingly mundane as indexing, no less!

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Overview

Here are some excerpts from a church magazine article from the December 2018 Ensign that helped me gain some more appreciation for indexing.

Indexing is a process that helps us organize the data contained in many kinds of records. There are several types of records to choose from—birth, death, immigration, military, census, deed, probate, and so on. You can also choose from records in many different languages (the indexing of non-English records is greatly needed at present). Individuals log on to a web-based system to look at images of genealogical records and record what they see into forms on their computers.

Indexing began in the year 2006, and in 2017, work shifted to the new web-based system (see familysearch.org/indexing/my-indexing).

Indexing makes records available and searchable. As one grateful researcher put it, “An unindexed record is an unfindable record.” Before indexing began, those who did family history had to manually look through old records, sometimes spending endless hours pouring over microfilms, hoping to find family names. The indexing process now transforms the information into digital format, and searches that used to take hours, days, or even years can now be accomplished in seconds.

Indexed records make a wonderful new tool possible called “hinting.” The computer looks at the information in your family tree and compares it to the FamilySearch database—all 3-plus billion records. When it finds a record that matches most or all of the information about an ancestor in your tree, it’s posted as a “hint” on that person’s FamilySearch profile page. These hints can springboard you into many temple and research opportunities. Indexing is the engine that fuels the hinting feature.

The descendancy view of your family tree shows you the descendants of your ancestors, helping you find missing cousins. This powerful feature is also made possible by indexing.

So that's very interesting, but that was 7 years ago - an eternity if you're thinking about computers.

What about today though? What's going on today with the arrival of artificial intelligence? Has it encroached into the family history space like it has into virtually every other space?

Yes, it has, and it's made all the difference in indexing.

There is a great article on the FamilySearch blog about the history of the indexing projects in the church. As technology has advanced, the church's indexing projects have adapted to make use of it, and it's associated efficiency and scaling. Today, artificial intelligence is the current game-changer, and the church has embraced it just as it has embraced its technological predecessors. 

Has it replaced volunteers? Nope. Still needed. Check out these few paragraphs from the end of the article:

Contributions over the last 2 decades are astonishing. From 2005 (when the FamilySearch indexing desktop program was released) until the end of 2024, over 1.5 million volunteers from around the world have completed almost 4,000 indexing projects. These projects covered 100 countries and 28 languages. The result? Over 5 billion records were indexed and made available to people searching for their families.

Ron Sanders, a product manager at FamilySearch, shared his observations about indexing:

“It’s inspiring to reflect on how far our indexing processes have come. . . . [Past programs have] built upon one another, incorporating the best available technologies at every stage. Where we once relied solely on manual, volunteer-driven efforts, we’ve since seen extraordinary technical advancements that augment human efforts. These innovations have transformed the scale, speed, and efficiency of our work. . . .

“Indexing will continue to evolve, with computer-assisted indexing becoming a more efficient method of making an initial pass at transcribing records and volunteers efficiently making corrections. The Get Involved website and the exciting advances in computer-assisted indexing are the gateway to the future of indexing.”

You may be wondering, are volunteers still needed? Absolutely! Technology has changed—and dramatically accelerated—the availability and searchability of historical records. There will be advancements ahead that we can hardly dream of now. People will still make unique contributions that can’t be duplicated by technological tools, no matter how advanced. The best technology can’t replace human judgment, intuition, and especially connection.

There is still plenty of work to do as we continue to make strides toward FamilySearch’s goal of indexing as many of the world’s records as possible and helping people connect with their family. We hope you’ll join us!

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What About AI?

Speaking of artificial intelligence: We're in the mainstream! Here's what my Google Search (with AI) turned up when I asked this question: "familysearch - what benefits do you see from doing indexing."

FamilySearch indexing offers numerous benefits, primarily making historical records more accessible for everyone. Volunteers transcribe and enter information from records, creating searchable indexes that allow users to easily find their ancestors online. This service also provides opportunities for personal growth, family connection, and community service. 

Here's a more detailed look at the benefits:

For Family History Researchers:

• Improved Searchability:
  Indexing transforms massive collections of unindexed records into searchable databases, saving researchers hours of time and frustration when looking for specific ancestors. 

• Faster Discovery:
  With indexed records, users can quickly locate their ancestors' names, dates, and other key information, leading to quicker family history discoveries. 

• Access to Original Records:
  Indexing often provides links to the original images of records, allowing researchers to view the documents in their original context. 

For Volunteers:

• Personal Growth and Connection:
  Indexing provides opportunities to learn about the past, develop research skills, and connect with one's own family history. 

• Service to Others:
  Volunteers contribute to a global effort that helps millions of people around the world discover their ancestors. 

• Convenience and Flexibility:
  Indexing can be done from anywhere with internet access and at the volunteer's own pace, making it accessible to people of all ages and abilities. 

• Learning Opportunities:
  Indexing can help volunteers develop skills in reading historical documents (including cursive writing), data entry, and digital literacy. 

In essence, FamilySearch indexing benefits individuals, families, and the broader community by making historical records more accessible, facilitating research, and fostering a sense of connection to the past, according to FamilySearch

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What About These Records?

Here are some things from another FamilySearch blog that I hadn't thought of before that sure are interesting, and make me think with greater appreciation of the complexity of records management:

Volume of data: the digital pipeline of FamliySearch is the generation of somewhere in the range of 15 terabytes of images, or one million to three million pages digitally every business day of the year.

Data Validation: the preservation system has to be automated to check all the bits on every tape and make sure there is no corruption.

Media refresh: as the tape media ages, the system needs the ability to make copies on to the new media, before unrecoverable errors begin to apper.

File format migration: do you have [data files] where the software vendor is long gone, along with your installation disks? As years pass the risk of not being able to accurrately read a data file increases. Our preservation system needs to account for this...

Metadata and descriptive data: keeping track is critical.

Documentation: it is imperative that we document our data modes, file formats, technology standard, software code, hardware specifications, and many many other aspects of teh digital preservation system. A future archeologist will not be able to simply put a magnifying glass up to microfilm to view our digital artifacts.

Is your head spinning yet? It's a lot to take in! As if that's not enough, think of the documents that being destroyed every day that could help someone in search of an ancestor but now will be lost forever. 

You can read more on that here if your interest has been piqued regarding the importance of documents, their preservation and management.

Here is an example from that article of just one of the destructive risks that these precious document face and how FamilySearch was able to help:

Floods, hurricanes, typhoons, fires, earthquakes, and such are natural disasters that compromise or completely ruin historical and genealogical records.

The Philippines, for example, faces a constant flooding danger. Ouimette told how he visited a village where the cement pillars showed darkened, high-water marks indicating the depths of previous floods. The village’s archivist, whose office was on the second floor above the watermarks, lamented the fact that a 1985 flood destroyed his records. A central archive in Manila regularly maintains a second copy of local records because they are often worn out from overuse. The archivist received a government grant to make copies of his records; however, his village office ran out of money before the task was completed.

A Priceless Gift

While at this Philippines registry office, FamilySearch employees signed in to the FamilySearch website and found the archive’s missing records online. A FamilySearch team had microfilmed these records before the 1985 flood. Ouimette described the conversation that followed: “[We] said [to the archivist], ‘Did you know that there is a copy of everything you had before the flood?’ He was totally unaware. Many registrars had preceded him, and over time this was forgotten.”

The FamilySearch employees offered to give the registrar a copy. “He followed us down the stairs when we left, saying, ‘Are you sure? You are willing to do this for us?’” A few weeks later, FamilySearch sent him a free hard drive with a copy of the records he was missing.

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How Can I Help?

That's the main question! We want to help. It's part of our DNA and disciples of Jesus Christ, but if you're like me, sometimes you just don't know about the how. I know that listening to the spirit is essential, but there is that part about "study it out in your own mind" that's also important, so I like to think that by knowing more I might be able to help more. That's kind of the reason for this expose on indexing, with the hope that somebody's ministering might be directed on a path that might otherwise be untraveled. 

Additional helps are below. These are live links that work (at least they do today). The last one (Your Impact) shows you how to take a look your contributions to FamilySearch - and the difference those contributions have made to the work of uniting families for eternity. I had no idea how useful I have been! How does yours look?

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