The effort for indexers to break records

With each passing year, technology in the LDS Church gets better and better. This time I had no problems with the website in the 24 hours of the event. I also learned a few things from the 2011 event. I downloaded all of the batches of names I would need before July 1, 2012. I also worked offline to take some pressure off the website.

Within 16 hours, 5 million names had been indexed or arbitrated, so we broke the record. In the next eight hours, more than 5 million additional names had been indexed or arbitrated. (See "FamilySearch Indexers Leave a Legacy in a Record Setting Event" for more information.)

More than 46,000 people had participated on July 1 and 2, breaking the old record of about 34,000 people in one day.

I was overjoyed to see the progress we have made in a year and a half in the number of names indexed and arbitrated for a one-day record and the number of people who participated for a one-day record. I learned the importance of what one person can accomplish. I had an idea and it came to a reality.

I look forward to participating in the next day we try to break a record.

Ken Sisler is a family historian who lives in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. His email is ken.sisler@rogers.com