Serendipity. The most recent weekly assignment for Abundant Genealogy was about the contacts we make and the impact that contact has on our on research. And now this is the week of the FGS 2012 Conference in Birmingham. And I am here. What a perfect way to make new contacts and see your friends!
Tonight - Tuesday, Sept 28th - before the actual opening of the Conference, FamilySearch hosted a dinner and a bit of a news and status update for those of us who are Bloggers. What a delightful evening! I know many pictures were taken and there will be blogs that tell you all the details and many of the facts related during the brief presentation.
I just want to say this. Thank you, FamilySearch. For so much. For tonight's dinner, fellowship and the really neat gift. For coordinating the 1940 indexing and bringing the whole project in ahead of time - there is no other organization that could have done so. For your many research-help classes. For the ever growing Wiki. For RootsTech [oh how much fun that is!] For microfilming and now digitizing those millions of records from past years. For all the ongoing planning to preserve and digitize records world-wide, and make those records available to all of us.
We can give back. 165,000 volunteers helped index the 1940 census - that has dropped to about 50,000 that are now indexing the Immigration records. Where did you go? Just help when you can - every single name indexed is someone's family member. FamilySearch is now accepting volunteers to help digitize the records and they can work on local projects. Volunteers can add to the information on the Wiki. As the Family Tree comes online - and yes, it will - there will be a need for volunteers to correct and improve the data. We can all help - that's how we can show our gratitude for all that FamilySearch has done for the genealogy community.
If you are not attending this week, I can only say, "I wish you were here!"
