Technology helps FamilySearch hit major milestone

FamilySearch volunteers expect to have transcribed more than 325 million names by the end of 2009, just three years after the organization began its online indexing program.

The milestone was a number once thought impossible to reach in such a short period of time. In 2006, a few thousand volunteers indexed only 11 million names. But thanks to continuing advances in technology and a growing number of volunteers — more than 100,000 across five

continents — an estimated half-million individual names are indexed each day.

At that rate, Paul Nauta, FamilySearch public affairs manager, expects that 500 million names will be transcribed by the end of 2010.

And yet all this work barely makes a dent in the vast stores of historical records throughout the world, which grow by more than 100 million records (each with multiple names) every year.

\"We are not catching up,\" Nauta said. \"In preserving records alone, there are more records created in one year than we could ever film in years with current technology.\"

To hasten the work of making important historical records available online, FamilySearch is continually trying to improve upon current technologies and find additional dedicated volunteers.

Over time, the LDS Church's Family History Department has developed new ways to preserve records not only as quickly as possible but at the highest quality possible. This has resulted in specially designed digital cameras, innovative scanning technology, and new computer software.

\"It is not necessarily that we want to be pioneers in this field and this technology,\" Nauta said. \"But we are compelled to do it.\"

Capturing the records

Digital cameras that have been adapted to the work are at the center of each operation. They are the tool used to capture images of the original documents once a project is identified and permission gained.

Employees of the church's Family History Department oversee the effort to acquire records, beginning with the decision about what records they would like to acquire and from where.

\"It's about how it helps us connect the family of man,\" said Duane Barson, one of three area managers for the Family History Department, who manages the family history work in the Americas. \"There's a well-thought-out process to help us allocate our very limited human resources to gather those records.\"

Once records are identified, Family History Department employees work with various churches, municipalities, archives and governments to acquire or create copies. Most institutions welcome Mormon efforts.

\"We have a good reputation as an organization that cares about the records as much as the archivists do,\" said Steven L. Waters, strategic