You Can Make Records More Accessible

How can you increase the amount of widely-available family history resources?  A growing number of records are being digitally imaged and hosted by recordkeeping organisations – but some of these collections are vast and would take ages to trawl through, not to mention the hard-to-read handwriting they sometimes contain.  

Transcribing these records into readable text is the first step to creating indexes which make them infinitely more accessible and useful, and this is where you can play a significant part.  By giving just a little of your time, you can help build an index to some records, leading a genealogist like yourself to discover ancestors they would otherwise never have found - all without leaving home.

Here are three projects looking for volunteers to transcribe their collections.  If you took part in February’s Transcription Tuesday event, you’ll recognise these organisations – in fact, Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine is making Transcription Tuesday a weekly occurrence...details coming up!

For the FamilySearch or Ancestry projects, you'll need to set up an account with their website if you don’t already have one – but this is absolutely free and doesn’t require any payment details from you.

Now is your chance to contribute something really valuable to the family history community.  Do get involved! 

The National Archives are appealing for more help with their Navy WWI crew lists project. Visit Royal Navy Lives at Sea to learn about the project and sign up via e-mail.

  

FamilySearch Indexing 

Join the fun at FamilySearch Indexing and use their online program.

Pick a set of records to work on from dozens that have been sourced and digitally imaged worldwide.  Or try a few different ones!  And be prepared to receive one of the project’s ‘thank you’ messages from a grateful genealogist once your indexed records are online.

Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine's Transcription Tuesday will be making a regular appearance, starting next week with Ancestry’s 1820-1843 English Criminal Lunatic Asylum Registers.  Instructions on how to get involved and download the Ancestry keying tool are here. 

I’ve been involved in projects like this for many years now, and can attest to the value they add to records, and to your genealogy skills.  Some of these collections are fascinating, and who knows, you might even come across one of your own ancestors when you least expect it.  I was indexing a batch of Scottish christening records when to my amazement I saw my great-grandmother’s name staring at me from the register (pictured below).

You can read more about the recent Transcription Tuesday projects here.