"When I work with genealogy enthusiasts in my local society, and I ask them "how many of you have used the Family History Library Catalog in the past year," I'm always surprised by how few persons are even aware of this resource."
"It really messes me up when a FamilySearch Indexing (FSI) project has two entry columns for the age when the original census only has one... So what do I do about it? Shush! Don't tell Salt Lake. I hide the Age:Months column."
"The semimonthly headquarters message for FamilySearch Indexing (FSI) on 16-May-2008 gave some great hints for adjusting highlights. Unfortunately, without illustrations, my brain glazed over and I got little from the message. Here's my version of the message, with illustrations added."
"When indexing it sometimes slows you down when you have to move your hand from the keyboard to the mouse. The programmers who created FamilySearch Indexing hate to get slowed down, so they implemented a series of keyboard shortcuts. You'll find they work for you too."
"You've noticed, of course, that the 1900 U.S. Census includes both the birth year and the age. But have you noticed that adding the year and age together gives 1899 or 1900? Makes sense, doesn't it, since this is the 1900 census. You can use this tip when the year is hard to read, but the age is plain."
"Let's use the surname to the right as an example. If you weren't quite sure what the name was, you could use the Lookup ability of FamilySearch Indexing (FSI)."
"If you're not familiar with this database, I highly recommend checking it out. Number one reason: it's free! Number two: many of the sources of information in this database are extracted from official records."
Published 29 Jan 2006
Read more at AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors
