Indexing Summary - April (FamilySearch)

Over the years I have done indexing for both FamilySearch and FreeREG. FamilySearch should be very familiar to anyone doing family history research; FreeREG is probably less well known.

For anyone doing research in the United Kingdom, Parish Registers are essential for tracking down that elusive person who was Baptised, Married, or Buried before 1837 when official registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths commenced. This is where FreeREG shines. Not only does it contain parish register data pre-1837 but also some registers well into the 20th Century. The Dorset marriage registers I transcribed recently were from 1971.

If you subscribe to Ancestry with either a World or United Kingdom subscription you will be very familiar with FreeBMD. FreeREG is a sister site containing searchable parish register transcriptions while FreeCEN allows searching the UK census data. These sites, particularly FreeREG and FreeCEN are works-in-progress, and there are large gaps in the databases. Both sites need volunteers.


In April I didn't do any indexing for FreeREG but concentrated mostly on FamilySearch. This is what I managed to get done:

• New Zealand Passenger Lists  1871-1915 Part 2A [605]
• UK Bristol - Parish Registers 1837-1900 Part I [168]
• UK Essex Parish Registers Part 1 [16]
• UK Dorset Church of England Parish Records [638]
• US Kansas 1930 Federal Census [50]
• US Missouri 1930 Federal Census [50]
• US New Hampshire 1930 Federal Census [50]
• US New Jersey 1930 Federal Census [400]
• US New York 1930 Federal Census [2350]

I try to do at least one batch a day from a high priority database (1930 US federal Census), one from Oceania (New Zealand Passenger Lists) and one from the United Kingdom (Parish Registers in this case). If I really can't read a batch I send it back for someone else with better eyes to handle. Once in a while there is a 1930 US Census page with totally abysmal handwriting and some of the UK Parish Registers are in an old font that I'm completely unable to translate.