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Latter-day Saints Connect with the Past through Family History Work

As I indexed the names, there was an increase of interest in their lives and stories

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Upper Hutt, New Zealand recently participated in an activity designed to get them involved and excited about family history work.

During the project, 2600 names were indexed by young and old participants. Indexing is a volunteer project established and run by FamilySearch, a genealogy organisation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For over 100 years, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide. Indexing allows you type names from old records into a database that people worldwide can access in their research of family history and records.

                                                                                   
    

Indexing Director for the Upper Hutt Latter-day Saint congregation, Deidre Ah Wong, said, “Indexing reaches people beyond our communities. It’s a great way to keep research blossoming and makes records accessible. I’ve benefited from the indexing others have done.”

Tavete Fau a young father who participated in the event with his son, Mason, commented, “This is our first time indexing and it is easier than I thought—it was simple enough that our 4-year old was able to translate and enter dates. As we indexed, I felt an increase of interest in lives and stories from a distant past."    

                                                  

    

Some members also participated in the BillionGraves initiative. BillionGraves is an expansive family history database of records and images from the world’s cemeteries, all tagged with GPS locations. Volunteers around the world capture images of headstones in a cemetery and upload them to the site.

Leima Tua’Tonga, took 400 pictures during the activity and said, “I love doing this work, and hope to carry on and do more.”

Ricky J. Miller a Latter-day Saint leader in the Upper Hutt Stake, commented, “2018 is a year where we can refocus our efforts on searching for and finding our ancestors and in helping others do their family history work. Indexing is a great way for everyone to participate.”

The Upper Hutt Stake is now looking forward to planning a Family History day in August.

Watch a short video on Indexing:

            

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