My name is Allyson and I have an addiction...

I began indexing a few years ago when an article about it came out in the Ensign magazine.  It looked fun and easy...it is.  I plugged along doing a census record here and there and enjoying trying to figure out the handwriting and imagining the people and their family life.  Quite a fun, new hobby I thought.  Then last year, my brother-in-law headed up a huge indexing project up in the Sacramento area.  It was the OMNI project.  Their stake set a goal of One Million Names Indexed...in one month!  They did it!  You can click here to see a touching video about it all.  I was able to hear the stories and watch their progress on the sidelines and it was amazing.  Of course, it got me more interested in doing it more regularly so I picked up the pace.  Now we are indexing the 1940 census and it is so exciting!  I LOVE indexing.  I LOVE typing in all those names and places, and thinking about people searching for their families in these records.  In some small way I am helping with family history and genealogy.  Utah is one of the states already indexed so I looked up both my parents' census records.  My dad was 9 and my mom was 6!

 I wish I would have indexed their pages...that would have been so fun!  The Alburn Brown family in Bicknell, Utah and the Frank Farnsworth family in Beaver, Utah.  And if I would have indexed their pages, I would have spelled my dad's name right!  It is ARLOW but they indexed it ARLIN.  Two people index one sheet and then an arbitrator looks at it to see their differences and picks what he thinks is the most correct.  And my Aunt (who was ONE when this census was taken) is BEVERLY but the census taker wrote BEVRLY.  Oh well, they are still totally searchable on family search.  I LOVE that all of my mom's siblings are on the census...all 10 of them!  My dad's brothers are all on there, but his two sisters weren't born yet. 

I truly love indexing and am addicted to it!  I can do one page in less than 30 minutes and my average arbitration rate has been 97- 98% so I feel pretty good!  I have indexed almost 7000 names since I started this 4 years ago.  I have friends that are indexing that many in a month!  I will never be able to do that (until I'm retired from working of course)...so my goal is 1000 names a month.  That is one census record per day.  So far, I have stuck with my goal.  Go to family search and look for your family records.  It is awesome!  And if you have a few minutes a day on your computer, consider giving indexing a try!  You might become addicted...



My Favorite Son-in-law

Happy 30th Birthday to my favorite son-in-law Dale!  Good by 20's, hello minivan! (a favorite ol' country song of mine)...Anyway...we wish him the best on this day!  Wish we could be in Georgia and help celebrate...probably a nice southern BBQ dinner, right?

 I have to tell one of my faves about Dale...this is when I knew he was a great match for our beautiful Amanda.  They were at BYU and Amanda had mano...she was so tired all the time and didn't feel well.  "Apartement check" day was coming up for her and the girls' apt...and her assignment was to clean the fridge (if I remember it correctly)...she was resting on the couch and Dale cleaned the fridge!  What a great guy!  Just the kind of son-in-law one prays for for their daughter...

And just for fun, this is one of his cutie patootie pics from when he was a little kid!  Who does he remind you of?  A cutie patootie grandson of mine! 

Thank you Dale for always being such a kind and wonderful husband and care giver!  We know Amanda is in good hands.  And thank you for being a wonderful daddy to our precious grandsons.  We love you like a son...hope you have a happy, happy birthday!  I love this pic of you two in your cute little BYU apartment...we had just come from your first McKinney reunion.  Hope you have no regrets for joining this family!  

Avonlea Wednesdays...

On Wednesday afternoons, my bosom friend Donna comes over for an episode of Avonlea.  It is a series set on Prince Edward Island (home of Anne of Green Gables) and is a delightful series that my girls and I watched, back in the day, all seven seasons!  So after Donna and I finished watching all the Anne of Green Gables movies, we started Avonlea (or as called in Canada, "Road to Avonlea")...I LOVE Wednesday afternoons!  when we started season 3, it began with Olivia and Jasper's wedding, so Donna made wedding cake!  Complete with bride and groom on top!  We ate cake and watched the episode.  It was so much fun!  Thank you Donna for giving me something to look forward to each week!  I really miss it when it doesn't work out (which does happen occasionally). 

If you are a fan of Anne of Green Gables and have never watched this series, you are missing out!  Marilla Cuthbert and Rachel Lynde guest star on it from time to time, and those are some of my favorite episodes!  Feel free to join us on Wednesdays if you are so inclined.  But know this, we don't always have cake.  With seven seasons though, we will definitely have some goodies from time to time!