Second Annual Worldwide Indexing Event

In a press release dated July 15, 2015, FamilySearch announces its Second Annual Worldwide Indexing Event scheduled for August 7th to the 14th, 2015. The theme of this year's event is "Fuel the Find." The Infographic image explains how indexing assists the family history research process. Here is quote from the press release about the effort to index records:

Indexed (transcribed) historical records are like the fuel that powers genealogical search engines such as FamilySearch.org, enabling people to find missing or unknown branches in their family trees. Beyond simple name searches, indexed records also allow FamilySearch.org to provide patrons with highly relevant and accurate hints, essentially bringing the records of their ancestors to them automatically. Every name that a volunteer indexes from a historical record adds another drop of precious fuel that can ultimately help someone easily and quickly find a missing ancestor.

The goal this year is to expand the base of indexers to include those who are fluent in other languages. Here is the goal:

Already one of the largest and most successful volunteer transcription programs in history with more than 1.3 billion records indexed since 2007, FamilySearch indexing is looking toward this year’s event to launch an expanded push for indexed records in languages other than English. Currently FamilySearch.org offers 20 times more searchable records in English than in all other languages combined. To balance this ratio, people with fluency in other languages, especially French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, are being sought as indexing volunteers. 

An additional goal is to exceed the effort from last year.

Last year’s Worldwide Indexing Event established a one-week record of 91,721 participants. This year, more than 100,000 participants are expected. To be counted, each volunteer must submit at least one indexing or arbitration batch sometime during the week. Volunteers and potential volunteers can visit FamilySearch.org/indexingevent2015 to learn more, including strategies for avoiding high demand periods that may tend to slow down the indexing system.