Saturday, January 10, 2009

FamilySearch Indexing

Yesterday I didn't eat as good as I should have, but it was a bit of crazy day. I decided to take Little Miss Sunshine to the doctor to make sure she didn't have an ear infection or bronchitis lurking in her little body. She just hasn't been her usual self lately. I called for an appointment, and they had one available an hour later, so I rushed around and got us ready and out the door and to her appointment. Turns out everything's ok, she's just taking awhile to get completely over the bug she got at Christmas. Better safe than sorry though, since the two ear infections she has had were found when I brought her in for something else- there was no sign of them.

I also read 'Shadow Kiss', the third book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. I'm conflicted about it. It was good, but it didn't have a happy ending. Now, I realize that in a series (the next book is due out in August I think) each book doesn't have to have a perfect ending, and bad things do happen to your favorite characters. I think once I see what happens in the next book I'll be more ok with how this one turned out (I hope).

I was supposed to run a 5k today, but when I checked the website last night to get directions, it had been canceled due to poor trail conditions. The weather was cold and windy up here, so I'm guessing they got some snow further south of us. It was too bad, since today actually wasn't that bad: cold, but not frigid, and not too windy.

Today I sat down and wrote out character bios and started a more in-depth outline for my book. Once I finish deciding the main events, I can work on the details. I kept trying to do it earlier, but I hadn't picked out names for everyone, and it just wasn't working out. Now that the main characters have names and personalities, it should be easier going.

Today I finally signed up for FamilySearch Indexing and indexed my first batch. I've read about it several times over the last few months, and each time I've thought what a good idea it would be to get involved. It takes about an hour and a half to flip through the tutorials, but after that it's much quicker. You download a batch, which is an image (or images) of a record (birth, death, census, etc), and then fill out the fields with names, dates, etc. There is a bit of deciphering that has to be done, but they give you hints about how to do it accurately. I did a page from a census and it took me less than half an hour to do the 50 names that were listed. You have a week to do each batch, and you can stop and save it if you don't have time to finish. An easy way to get involved with genealogy, and an important step towards making these records available for everyone to use.

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