The US genealogy world has been waiting for this for 10 years! The release of a census is a big deal and we now get millions more data points to digest about our ancestors/relatives!
A big part of the census experience is searching the index. The major index most will use is the one from FamilySearch/Ancestry and the volunteer portion has begun! I’ve indexed my first 1,000 names at FamilySearch and here are my top 3 takeaways.
1) The technology makes it so simple! – we get the benefit of reviewing names that are computer-generated from the handwriting on the census forms, instead of having to transcribe each name ourselves like we did in the 1940 census release. This makes the process much more streamlined and it goes much faster!
2) The technology is impressive! I have found that the computer-generated index is not too shabby and most names are correct! We did not know what to expect, so this is a clear demonstration for how the artificial intelligence technology can be used on handwritten records.
3) The indexing process is just plain fun! I could do this all day, every day, but of course, I have other responsibilities. The urge is strong though, yet, I can already see I will have to carve out ample time to make sure I do my part to contribute!
How is it going for you?
Are you indexing?
If so, I invite you to join my “indexing group” at https://bit.ly/academy-1950-indexing.
Way to go, Taneya! Thanks for the information. My husband and I will be traveling through mid-June, but I’m looking forward to starting to index once we return. And, looking forward to getting back into my genealogy activities. My mom just passed away April 29 and she was a big family history buff. So I’m inspired to start reaching out to others to find more relatives and stories.