Our Latest Addiction

On Monday we had Family Home Evening with my mom and sister Lauren.  My mom taught the lesson and she taught us all about her latest hobby, Indexing.  Indexing is where you look at old records and enter the information found on them into the FamilySearch data base.  This helps people who are looking for their Family History and information on their ancestors.  Right now the FamilySearch indexing department is working on entering the information on the 1940 US Census.

Entering the information is easy.  You can do it whenever you want, and for however long you want.  If you only have 5 minutes to spare, you can do it for just 5 minutes.  If you have a record that is too hard for you to read or understand, you can just send it back and get a new one.  The way it works is they send you a "batch" of records to work on.  Each batch has two separate people working on entering the same information.  Once those two people send in their completed batch, an arbitrator looks through and finds any differences in the two entries of that same batch and if there are any differences the arbitrator looks at the record and decides which entry is correct.  That is the entry that is submitted to the FamilySearch data base.

So my three oldest kids all now have their own account to do Indexing on the FamilySearch website.  It only took a few minutes to sign them up and get them started.  THEY LOVE IT!  THEY ARE ADDICTED!  And I can't think of a better addiction for them to have.  Yesterday Emily and Addy and I went to the park and Aubrey opted to stay home so she could what?  Yeah.  So she could index!  When Emily got home from Summer Band yesterday, the first thing she did?  She logged on and started indexing!  Even busy Steve who has no spare time, was indexing!  It really is addicting.

There was recently an article in The New Era (our church magazine for teenagers) on Indexing.  My mom used that article to teach her Family Home Evening lesson.  In the article it lists 8 different reason for youth to get involved in Indexing, then it expounds on the reason.  To read the whole article, click here.  Here are the reasons they listed:

1 Because these aren’t just names; they’re people.

2 Because it feels great.

3 Because you’re a perfect fit.

4 Because it fits your schedule.

5 Because it’s not just for older generations.

6 Because technologies have been invented for this work.

7 Because it protects you from the influence of Satan.

8 Because prophets have invited you to do so.

Here is a quote to the youth from David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

"As you respond in faith to this invitation, your hearts shall turn to the fathers. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts. Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you. Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase. Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives."

What a fantastic promise to youth in this day and age!


Anyone can do Indexing!  My 9 year old can do it and she loves it!  You don't have to be a member of our church to do it.  Anyone can sign up and get started.  There is even an app for it.  Click here for more info on that.


To sign up and get started, click here.  If you have an LDS.org account, you can log in using that log in and password.


To find information about your ancestors, check out the FamilySearch website by clicking here.


For the Family History Youth website click here.