Browse unindexed microfilm online TODAY

FamilySearch is doing its level best to get things out to genealogists as soon as possible

DearREADERS,
Last Thursday in Ol’ Myrt described the process of registering to use the FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot test site in her blog entry titled “View microfilm before it's indexed”. I received access at 8:36pm on Saturday, and immediately began exploring the site.
I have been dying to tell you all about it, but was restricted by a short confidentiality clause in the acceptance email.

By Monday afternoon three genealogy bloggers had freely offered opinions about how the site works, so Ol’ Myrt emailed the “powers that be” to ask if the confidentiality clause had been lifted. The answer is YES -- sort of.

SITE NOT OFFICIALLY OPEN
While the FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot site isn’t open “officially” and has been confidential this past month, I have been authorized to go forth with blogs on the topic. “While your blog may receive a much higher readership than I was hoping to get right now…” an unnamed highly-placed FamilySearchLab source gave DearMYRTLE the go-ahead to speak.

Hopefully, FamilySearchLabs can learn how much traffic the system will support.

Caution is wise – Remember when FamilySearch.org first went live? For a few days servers were maxed out, and getting into the site was a challenge. No one could anticipate the overwhelming response.

Once the word gets out about FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot to view scanned microfilm images on the web, the place will be inundated, particularly as the collection grows.
But, site administrators can control full access by not granting permission to many individual researchers at one time.

WHAT IS IN THE COLLECTION?
Although some of items in this collection are searchable free elsewhere, remember this is a test site for looking at scanned images of microfilm. They have to start somewhere. At this point, it does not appear that all collections are linked in the Family History Library Catalog. So during this testing period, the only place to find these FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot images is by going to: http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html

• 1880 United States census
• 1900 United States census
• 1930 Mexico census
• New York Passenger Arrival Lists (1892-1924)
• World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942
• Freedman Bank Records 1865-1874
• England, Diocese of Durham Bishops' Transcripts ca. 1700-1900
• Ohio Deaths 1908-1953
• Ontario Deaths, 1930-1932
• Texas Death Index 1964-1998
• U.S. Social Security Death Index
• Utah Death Certificates 1904-1956

HOW DOES IT WORK?
If you participate as a “tester” you’ll be given challenges to find a specific individual in a specific collection. There are FEEDBACK buttons on the top of every page. Eventually, when the kinks have been worked out, this may be the actual method we’ll use to view online many of the 2-3 million rolls of microfilm that comprise the Family History Library collection, cataloged at http://www.familysearch.org/ .

Unlike the prototype “film strip” method of navigation suggested in a talk titled “Sneak Peak” presented at the 2005 FGS Federation of Genealogical Societies annual conference, the FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot works on a MENU SYSTEM to get you to a specific part of a 1,400 page collection of scanned images from microfilm. For instance in the following “images only” collection one is able to get to a smaller portion of the images as follows:

1. Login at: http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html

2. Choose England, Diocese of Durham Bishops’ Transcripts ca 1700-1900.

3. Choose Durham (61,658 images) from a list of counties (equivalent of a US State) that includes:

• Cumberland
• Durham
• North Durham
• Northumberland
• Unknown
• York

NOTE: this page explains the records are “Church of England Parish Registers and Bishops’ Transcripts ca 1700-1900.” Additional guidance is provided on this page with topics headings of how to use the record, why the record was created, record history, record description, record coverage, record content [what to expect] & record reliability.

4. Choose South Shields (5,494 images) for the parish, the ecclesiastical subdivision of the Church of England) from among an extensive list of other parishes in the county.

5. Choose 1763-1805 (991 images) the year range.

Note the parish list shows two chapels (Holy and South) beginning in 1840, and a third (St Hilda) showing up in the parish by 1866. The segments of this collection are divided thusly:

• 1763-1805 (991 images)
• 1805-1816 (718 images)
• 1816-1825 (739 images)
• 1818-1866 (683 images)
• 1825-1833 (704 images)
• 1833-1840 (227 images)
• 1840-1848 Holy (213 images)
• 1840-1848 South (6 images)
• 1864-1867 Holy (42 images)
• 1866-1883 St Hilda (682 images)
• 1883-1891 St Hilda (489 images)

NOTE: Since some of these time periods overlap, researchers may end up reading every section of this collection to find references to an ancestor. This is no more difficult than waiting for your microfilm to arrive through the local LDS Family History Center and cranking the reel through the reader. Looking at the images through FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot is a significant improvement over the microfilm version because the FHL Catalog doesn’t necessarily provide this sort of overview. It should also be noted that each image in this collection represents a page from a church book, where 5-20 individual christenings, marriages or burials may be listed.

6. To quickly navigate through a large collection of images, forget the NEXT button. Type in a page number to jump ahead, by estimating where you might find an ancestor who was christened in 1775. I typed in 50, and clicked the GO button. That took me to 1772. Typing in 63 got me to January 1774, so I used the NEXT button to navigate over to image 70, where I located the January 1775 christenings.

Some of the smaller parishes have loose papers, which were either filed or microfilmed in seemingly random order. Ol’ Myrt remembers the advice of my friend Barb who says “read every page” of the census for an ancestor’s county. I think this applies to any surviving record group, such as these parish records of christenings, marriages and burials from a specific locality in South Shields, Durham, even if it is 991 images. We DO want to know about our family’s origin don’t we?

AVAILABILITY - % INDEXED and % IMAGES
When you click to select a specific image collection, the page shows an image like this:

In this case the 1930 Mexico Census has 0% of records indexed, but 100% of images are available for immediate review at this site.

VIEWING A SPECIFIC PAGE

When viewing an image using the FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot viewer, one can merely use the mouse pointer (which turns into a hand icon) to drag and drop a large image around the viewer frame. Alternately, a “mini-viewer map” in the bottom right portion of the FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot screen indicates the portion of the document you are currently viewing. Dragging and dropping the mini-map’s yellow highlight window to a different position causes the larger viewing area to reflect your preference.

WHAT MYRT LIKED
VIEWER LOADS IMAGES QUICKLY. Once you’ve selected a specific collection, it is a quick click to progress to the next or previous page and compares favorably with other viewers. I am accustomed to routinely accessing scanned images with this DSL connection at Ancestry.com, HeritageQuestOnline, Footnote.com, GenealogyBank.com, Scotland’s People, Library of Congress, etc., using both a Windows XP and a Windows Vista computer.

HELPFUL INFO IS AVAILABLE. I liked the informative descriptions of collections and the .pdf form of a sample document, and how to use it. This is from the Utah death certificate collection:

WHAT MYRT DIDN’T LIKE
A PRINT OF THE IMAGE DOES NOT INCLUDE A SOURCE CITATION FOOTNOTE. Nearly every page on the web does this in the header/footer area. Maybe this is an option that will be activated when this testing phase is complete?

SOURCE CITATIONS TAKE EXTRA EFFORT TO MAKE. While it is easy to print and save a specific document image, it is difficult to copy/paste indexed text to notes for an ancestor. This is will cause researchers to skip a vital step in providing a proper source citation when they find an image with the FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot viewer.

Note in the screen shot below, I could not select more than 1 field’s contents, in this case the GSU (FHL) Film number: 2259764.

I should be able to select everything in this abstract page from the word NAME to the actual death CERTIFICATE NUMBER on the bottom, copy it to my computer’s clipboard, and paste it in notes or sources for my ancestor Alma Oades [sic] Player. All but the most diligent researchers will pass up the chance to copy/paste anything more than film number.

CAN’T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MULTIPLE ABSTRACTORS’ WORK IN THE INDEXING PROCESS. Remember that each FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot image eventually goes through the FamilySearchIndex.org process, where volunteer person A and volunteer person B type what they see on a page. A computer compares the results & an arbitrator is called in to resolve typos and handwriting challenges. The final typed abstract of the original document is remarkably more reliable than anything I might type.

Since at least two typists and perhaps an arbitrator have abstracted the info from my ancestor’s original death record, this makes the information their work should become part of an ancestor’s notes. This will save time and prevent the inevitable typos if I were to abstract the same info on my own.

But alas, this inability to copy/paste more than one field at a time makes this a nearly impossible task. Contrast this with Alma Oades [sic] Player’s entry in the public version of in the Utah Death Index at the Utah State government website. Here I can freely copy the abstracted field labels and data in order to paste that info in my ancestor’s file in my genealogy management program.

I have a routine that includes copy/paste of source citation, including URL to notes at the same time I attach a saved copy of the document to my ancestor’s file. In this manner, when someone asks me about him, I’ll have all relevant data and images ready to share with the inquiring cousin.

SUMMARY
The folks at FamilySearch are doing a marvelous job with the FamilySearch - Record Search Pilot viewer. If this is the final viewing mechanism, researchers will be very happy to see the images online instead of ordering microfilm through local Family History Centers. If the problem of copying and pasting abstracted data and source citation is fixed, we will be thrilled.

Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
Myrt@DearMYRTLE.com
www.DearMYRTLE.com

(c) 2007 Pat Richley All Rights Reserved.

Volunteers: Have you indexed your 50 names this month?

FamilySearchIndexing.org reports over 7 million names indexed in April 2007

DearREADERS,
Despite my travels this month, Ol’ Myrt has begun her May 2007 personal goal of indexing 1,500 names for the month. When I signed into the FamilySearch Indexing program, a new message was posted from headquarters which reads:

“The number of records you indexed in the past two months is truly awesome. In March, you indexed over 4.5 million records. In April, you submitted over 7 million. The total number of records indexed almost doubled in just one month. Thank you for this fantastic achievement!” 18 May 2007 FamilySearchIndexing.org internal software email to indexers.

Perhaps you've read this week about the new PUSH that the folks at FamilySearch are making to reach out to archivists, courthouses and churches throughout the world. See: http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/05/familysearchs-program-to-increase.html

NOW is the time to offer your services as a volunteer indexer and become part of this huge "wave" of indexed original records to be offered on the Web.

Ol’ Myrt has previously explained how EASY it is to participate in FamilySearch indexing as Arlene reported in http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/04/readers-feedback-familysearchindexing.html This blog entry includes a screen shot of a census page, and the indexing fields where one would type on the bottom half of the computer screen.

Remember, this is the QUALITY indexing, using data entry procedures with 2 typists. As an indexer, you are only aware of your entries. More experienced typists can elect to become arbitrators. An arbitrator looks at anomolies noted by the indexing software when comparing your indexing with that of the other indexer who worked the same page.

FOR FURTHER READING:

• DearMYRTLE. FamilySearchIndexing - 250 names completed & Linux
  http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/04/familysearchindexing-250-names.html
• DearMYRTLE. Are you indexing your share?
  http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/04/are-you-indexing-your-share.html
• DearMYRTLE. How to sign up for FamilySearchIndexing
  http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/04/how-to-sign-up-for-familysearch.html

Let’s double the number of indexed entries this month as well. PLEASE.

The ancestor you index may be your own!

Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
Myrt@DearMYRTLE.com
www.DearMYRTLE.com

(c) 2007 Pat Richley, All Rights Reserved.

Historic Ellis Island Passenger Records Receive Expanded Online Access at WorldVitalRecords.com

Ellis Island, FamilySearch and World Vital Records make joint announcement

NOTE from DearMYRTLE: This was just received from www.WorldVitalRecords.com . All inquiries should be addressed to: Whitney Ransom, DirectorCorporate CommunicationsWorld Vital Recordswhitney@worldvitalrecords.com

May 16, 2007 (Ellis Island, NY and Provo, UT) - - The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., World Vital Records, Inc. and FamilySearch announced today at the National Genealogical Society Conference a partnership whereby the historic collection of Ellis Island passenger arrival records will now also be freely available to visitors of the www.worldvitalrecords.com and www.familylink.com websites.

“This is an exciting time in the long history of American immigration,” noted Stephen A. Briganti, President and CEO of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. “Last month we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the busiest day at Ellis Island by hosting our annual Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards. Today, we’re pleased to announce the expanded availability of passenger arrival records which the Foundation has continued to provide at Ellis Island and as a free service online since first introducing the database in April 2001.” The records document the arrival of 25 million immigrants, U.S. citizens, and crew members arriving through the Port of New York from 1892 to 1924.

According to Briganti, the initial project was made possible through corporate and private donations, most notably by FamilySearch, a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. More than 12,000 FamilySearch volunteers donated 5.6 million hours over a 7-year period to transcribe nearly 25 million passenger records.

Wayne Metcalfe, Vice President of Records Services for FamilySearch commented, “We were pleased to provide assistance to the Foundation for the opening of their family history center in 2001 and are equally excited to see the expanded availability of these important records via the Internet. We were equally pleased to work in conjunction with World Vital Records in our new Records Access program. World Vital Records is part of a growing group of new breed online genealogical service providers who are seeking to promote the needs of records custodians and foundations like Ellis Island around the world.”

Since the records first became available online at www.ellisisland.org in 2001, the website has received 10 billion hits and has united countless families with their ancestral heritage. Current and upcoming FamilySearch indexing projects can be found at www.FamilySearchIndexing.org.

“This is certainly one of the single most important record collections available anywhere in the world,” stated Paul Allen, CEO of World Vital Records, Inc. “Nearly half of all American families have a direct personal connection to at least one individual who entered the U.S. through the Port of New York and Ellis Island, whose arrivals are documented on these passenger manifests.”

Through this alliance, the index to these historic records will be integrated into the overall search capabilities of the worldvitalrecords.com website. Individuals seeking additional details on the digitized manifests will be linked directly to www.ellisisland.org where copies of manifests, ship images, and commemorative passenger records can be obtained.

FamilySearch's Program to increase access

FamilySearch Unveils Program to Increase Access to World’s Genealogical RecordsTidal Wave of Online Databases Will Result

NOTE from DearMYRTLE: The following was just received from Wayne Metcalfe. All inquiries regarding content should be addressed to him at: metcalfewj@gensocietyofutah.org . Interested web server providers should contact Dave Harding rdingdp@ldschurch.org

For Immediate Release
14 May 2007

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—FamilySearch announced today its Records Access program to increase public access to vast genealogy collections worldwide. For the first time ever, FamilySearch will join with others to provide free services to archives and other records custodians who wish to digitize, index, publish, and preserve their collections. The program expands FamilySearch’s previously announced decision to digitize and provide online access to copyrighted microfilm preserved in the Granite Mountain Records Vault. A key component of the program allows FamilySearch and archives to team with genealogy websites to provide unprecedented access to microfilm in the vault. The combined results ensure a flood of new record indexes and images online at www.FamilySearch.org and affiliated websites.

The plan combines the assets and experience of the Genealogical Society of Utah with the state-of-the-art technology resources of FamilySearch—all under the single brand name of FamilySearch. The Records Access program allows records custodians to publish their data online by themselves or with the assistance of FamilySearch or affiliate genealogical websites and historical societies.

“Records custodians worldwide are experiencing growing pressure to provide access to their records online while maintaining control and ownership. At the same time, websites that provide digitizing and publishing services are struggling with the staggering costs,” said Wayne Metcalfe, who directs Records Services for FamilySearch. “The new Record Access program takes advantage of FamilySearch’s resources and creates an economical and effective forum where record custodians and genealogical websites can work together to accomplish their respective objectives,” added Metcalfe.

Working with the records custodians, FamilySearch can leverage its extensive microfilm and growing digital image collection to create digital images for affiliate genealogical websites at a fraction of the cost. The affiliate genealogy organization will create indices of the digital images and then publish the images and the indices on its own website, the archive’s website, or a jointly published site. A copy of the index will also be made available for free on the popular FamilySearch website, which will help drive traffic to record images on the custodians’ or affiliates’ sites. Full, free access to both the indices and images will be provided to family history centers, FamilySearch managed facilities, and the archives. If the record custodian seeks revenue to sustain operations, a small fee may be required to access images outside FamilySearch managed facilities or the archive.

For archives and heritage societies, the new program benefits include:
Digitally capture, preserve, and publish records online
Increase access to records while maintaining control and ownership
Increase patronage and business viability
Over 100 years of archival and publishing experience

For genealogy websites, the new program helps them:
· Benefit from the knowledge and relationships of FamilySearch with the archival community worldwide
· Significantly lower costs associated with acquiring, preserving, or providing access to data
· Increase business viability and website traffic
· Leverage an open platform that develops value-added services around FamilySearch, the world’s largest repository of genealogical data.

Under the program, FamilySearch will also provide tools and assistance to records custodians who want to publish parts of their collection using state-of-the-art digital cameras, software, and web-based applications.

The archive can work with an affiliate, historical society, or FamilySearch to index the images or host a website for the records custodian. The index of the record collection will be available for free on FamilySearch, and the records custodian’s site will provide access to the images for free or a fee depending on the needs of the archive and those assisting in the digitization.

One example of the tools FamilySearch can provide is FamilySearch Indexing, a web-based application that engages tens of thousands of volunteers worldwide to create searchable indexes linked to the digital images created by FamilySearch. “Through mere word-of-mouth promotions, literally tens of thousands of volunteers are already joining this effort to index the world’s records by registering at FamilySearchIndexing.org and donating a few minutes a week online to the effort. Over 100,000 volunteers are expected to enlist in the initiative by year end with the numbers increasing as more projects—particularly international projects—are added,” said Paul Nauta, manager of Public Affairs for FamilySearch.

FamilySearch will announce the first collaborative projects of its new Records Access program during the National Genealogical Society (NGS) Convention in Richmond, Virginia, the week of May 14, 2007. Many more project announcements are expected in the following months.

Record custodians and archives that would like additional information regarding the FamilySearch Records Services can contact Wayne Metcalfe (metcalfewj@gensocietyofutah.org) and genealogy web service providers should contact Dave Harding (hardingdp@ldschurch.org).

FamilySearch (historically known as the Genealogical Society of Utah) is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources accessed through FamilySearch.org, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries.

See also: www.FamilySearch.org

READER'S FEEDBACK: FamilySearchIndexing

From: Arlene duchess2810@msn.com
DearMYRTLE,
I took your advice and have signed on for volunteering with the indexing of records at www.FamilySearchIndexing.org. It is easy to do. My stake advisor dropped by and gave me some neat clues to use. I done 100 names in a couple of hours after I learned how to properly input. I plan on trying to do 50-100 names each day. Thanks for the encouragement to do it. Arlene - Bountiful, Utah.

DearARLENE,
THANKS to you and other DearMYRTLE readers who've joined the ranks of genealogists willing to donate time to produce an index of scanned images. There are printable “help” guidelines for each type of record (census, death, etc.) so you don’t have to wait for a supervisor to stop by and help you out. You could live in Timbuktu, and not speak to a soul, but still contribute to a great cause donating just a few hours a month.

Ol’ Myrt just dove in and did her best. Remember 2 people do the indexing for each page, unbenounced to each other, so the results of FamilySearchIndexing are considered highly reliable.

Here’s a sample screen shot so you can see how easy it is to do the indexing. Ol’ Myrt had previously downloaded FHL Film #4118709 batch 650, Sheet A-20 lines 1-50, New Britain Town, Hartford, Connecticut 1900 US Federal Census.




Notice in the screen shot above how the scanned image from microfilm is in the top half of the screen, while the form for Ol’ Myrt to type an abstract is in the bottom half of the screen.

Point “a” is the region of the digitized census microfilm where I am in the process of typing at point “b” the given name “Carrie L” for James Cole’s wife. Note the light blue highlight in the name field which FamilySearch Indexing superimposes on the digital version of the microfilm. This serves to help my tired old eyes easily reference where I am on the census page. After typing the wife’s name, if I press “enter” or “tab” twice on my keyboard, my cursor moves to the relationship field, where I will then type “wife”. Context sensitive help is provided at point “c” and that info changes, relative to the currently highlighted field.

OK – IN PLAIN ENGLISH. It’s easy to:
· zoom in and out on a page
· change to reverse mode (white letters on black background)
· type even parts of a word, like “w” for “wife” if it was the last used word in that column
· type ?? in place of 2 unreadable letters in a name
· mark "u" unreadable, if an item is totally undecipherable
· mark "b" if an essential column item is blank on the original page

PLEASE, sign up, and do at least 50 names a month. On average, a typical indexer submits about 833 names per month. But if each of the 80,000 subscribers/visitors of/to DearMYRTLE’s website, mailing list, message board and blog indexed 50 names each month that would be 4 million names a month. WOW. (I hope my math was correct – it is usually about as bad as my typing/spelling.)

COME ON GANG! Help index. This is more fun and a lot more productive than playing Spider Solitaire.

FOR FURTHER READING:

• DearMYRTLE’s BLOG. Are you indexing your share?
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/04/are-you-indexing-your-share.html

• DearMYRTLE's BLOG. FamilySearchIndexing - 250 names completed & Linux
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/04/familysearchindexing-250-names.html

• DearMYRTLE's BLOG. How to sign up for FamilySearchIndexing
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/04/how-to-sign-up-for-familysearch.html

Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
Myrt@DearMYRTLE.com
www.DearMYRTLE.com

(c) 2007 All Rights Reserved.

Are you indexing your share?

Are you indexing your share?

DearREADERS,
When Ol' Myrt signs in to do her share of indexing at FamilySearchIndexing.org, there is a little comment area where the folks in Salt Lake have recently made this posting:

"Dear FamilySearch Indexing Patrons:
You are terrific! You have indexed almost 29 and a half million names during the first quarter of 2007. We currently have about 33 thousand indexers and over one hundred people are joining the workforce every day. The enthusiasm for this work is phenomenal. Thank you so much for all you are doing, and keep up the great work."

Are you 1 in 100? Join the indexing project today! Find out more at:
www.FamilySearchIndexing.com

Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
Myrt@DearMYRTLE.com
www.DearMYRTLE.com

(c) 2007 All Rights Reserved.