Familysearch has issued me with a name tag and I am required to wear it when I am sitting at the computer taking calls or if I am at church or if I am at the Family History Center. Its primary purpose is to 1. remind me that I am part and parcel of the Family Search endeavors and 2. To remind others that I am engaged in a Church Service Mission. I got to wear it today when I went to the Family History center for the staff training session. I am now real - like the Velveteen Rabbit.
The only thing I did for training today was to go back over the indexing project to correct some items I left out - mostly because I was not aware how to get it done.
The project was for marriages in New York City in 1835. As I read the names and typed them into the system I began to think about the brides and grooms and wondered how they met and after they married, what kind of life did they lead. The magnificent thing about this indexing project is that the names of the parents of both the bride and groom are on the paper. So often we just get the couple and the date of the marriage and no parents. That makes things rather hard when we really need to have both sets of parents.
Last night I was indexing an obituary list. We have been asked to add all the names in the obituary in the order that they are listed. One man had about 30 grandchildren, all of them named, including the wives or husbands as recorded. The obituary even listed the two nurses who took care of him. The obituary stated that after the funeral, all were invited to Al's home for refreshments. "Al" did not have a last name for us to index, but looking back through the indexed obituary, we found that the deceased had a brother named Allan and so we put the abbreviation of his name along with his full name in the index.
Tonight, my leader called me and gave me a new set of identities for me to be able to use to search for information when people call in. I know little about this as yet, but I suspect that it allows me access to areas not open to the public, and perhaps this is the area where I will be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat for the patron. Yay! I love pulling rabbits out of the hat for people. My most recent experience was tracking my son in law's genealogy and starting with only a few names, I handed him 469 names of people who are his ancestors.
On another occasion I was handed a German Language Bible from an estate (it was scheduled to be burned). In it were 6 names and a few dates. I managed to extract the entire family record, print it up, and I managed to find a living descendant. Turns out she lived 60 miles north of Sara and I got to meet her.
I held a part time job in town in an antique store and as I was closing up shop, a picture of a pretty little girl caught my eye. I called the owner and asked if I could take the box of papers and try to find a living individual to return them. She said yes, and I found many people connected to the little girl, who is now in her 90's. I also found a researcher from 65 miles away who is connected to this family and in the box she showed me her grand mother holding her mother as a baby. It was a very valuable family picture to be sure.
So I look forward to trying to find "rabbits" and pull them out of the proverbial hat.
My team leader called me tonight and she is fascinated that I still speak Japanese fluently. Her daughter is studying Japanese and So we talked together for a few minutes. Her daughter does not speak the language but rather reads and writes it. I can only speak the language - the writing system is more than I can begin to handle.
I wish to relate a spiritual experience - a miracle if you will.
In January 2013 I had surgery on my left eye for a hole in the macular. The sight was non existent in this eye prior to the surgery and because of the surgery, the sight is somewhat restored. In order to do this mission I need to have good eyesight and as few difficulties as possible. I have prayed for a blessing that my eyes would work well so that I could do this service for my fellowmen. I noticed today when I was doing the indexing that my sight was excellent. I am grateful that God has heard my prayers and the prayers of my friends for my success at this missionary endeavor.
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