Press "Enter" to skip to content

A Family Volunteers from Home—and Reaps Surprising Benefits

This extended family is working from home to
help make the world’s historical records more available. In the process, they
are connecting with each other and drawing strength from the past.

Like millions of people around the
world, the extended Greenway family is sequestered at their homes. Coronavirus
has not yet touched them personally. Rather, they have been social distancing
to protect themselves and others.

During this time when most social
events are discouraged, and especially with children at home, the family has
been looking for meaningful ways to pass the time and stay connected.

They’ve found one. From their homes in
several parts of the United States, the Greenways are working toward a joint
goal to transcribe at least 2,000 names from FamilySearch’s collection of free,
digitized historical records. These transcriptions help others who are trying
to learn more about their family history.

Three generations of Greenways have taken
up the cause. It’s already proved so rewarding that several family members plan
to continue indexing even after normal routines resume. Here’s how they got
started, what results they are seeing, and how they help their children to participate.

Getting Started

Ron and Melanie Greenway live in Pennsylvania,
United States, but their six grown children and 20 grandchildren are scattered
around Pennsylvania, Ohio, Idaho, and Utah. Daughter Emily Greenway Richins
recently proposed that their family collaborate on a joint goal of indexing old
records. “I’ve done this before,” she says. “If everyone contributes a little,
it will add up. If we go over, awesome! I created a group home page, and we
FaceTimed to get everyone an account and teach
people how to do it
.”

the greenway indexing group on FamilySearch
A screen capture of the Greenway family’s indexing group. Anyone can create a private indexing group to pool group efforts and encourage others.

A Teen Indexer and His Mom

Emily’s oldest son, Isaac, who is
almost 14, has been one of the group’s most active participants so far. “He’s
taken this by the horns! He’ll index for 45 minutes at a time. He cyber-schools,
so he’s really good on the computer. He’s good at reading old handwriting too,” Emily says. “He likes indexing the ship
passenger manifests; they’re in a list, and he just goes down the names. He has
autism and it appeals to the organized part of his brain.”

Emily has found the process personally rewarding,
too. A busy nurse and mom, she finds that indexing fills her limited downtime
meaningfully. “When I would normally pick up a book or play a game on my iPad, I’ll
tell myself I need to index so many names before I can do that,” she says. “Before
I know it, I’ve finished four or five batches, and I have no desire to pick up
my book.”

isaac richins and melanie greenway
Isaac Richins lives near his grandmother Melanie Greenway. They’re not getting together in person much now, but sharing their indexing goals still helps them feel connected.

“I’ve been indexing death records and passenger manifests,” she continued. “I see the causes of death from, say, 1895. I work in labor and delivery, and I’ve noticed a lot of childbirth and infant deaths. I think to myself, ‘She wouldn’t die from that cause nowadays,’ and I wonder how the family felt. I’ve found stowaways on the ship passenger manifests. I wonder why they stowed away.”

“My son asked me what a stowaway was,”
Emily says. “It led to a great conversation about why people would have stowed
away. We wouldn’t have had that conversation otherwise. For parents, it’s a
good way to open up a dialogue about the challenges other people face versus
what we face.”

A Project for the Whole Family

Emily’s sister-in-law in Ohio, Tanya
Greenway, is a stay-at-home mom whose four children are now home all day too. Tanya
loves history but is new to indexing, and she has been pleasantly surprised. “Indexing
is an education it and of itself—for me, not just my kids. I’m learning geography
and history. Records mention countries that don’t even exist now,” Tanya says. “I’m
seeing how people spelled their names. Who knew you could have that many vowels
and consonants in one name?”

She especially enjoys the stories she sees
unfolding in old records. “They have become real people to me,” explains Tanya.
“One man got his citizenship one day after his birthday. What a great birthday
present! Today I ‘met’ a woman from Romania who was about 4 feet and 11 inches
and weighed 100 pounds. She was about 20 years old and a seamstress. I could just
picture this petite little seamstress. Someone’s description says he had a scar
on his neck. I thought about how that might have happened, what his life must
have been like.”

How are things going for her children?

family indexing on a bed
a young boy indexes on his computer
a young boy and his mom together
Images from left to right: Tanya Greenway with Madelynne and Owen; Jackson Greenway; Luke Greenway helps his mom, Tanya Greenway.
  • Madelynne, 14, had previously done some record
    indexing. “She helped me get set up, because I’m not good with technology. It
    was a great opportunity for her to teach me something,” Tanya says. “Now she
    works mostly independently. I don’t tell her how much to do or when—I want this
    to come from her. I just check on her to see what she’s working on.”
  • Jackson, age 11, “needs more of a one-on-one
    experience. This is new to him. I sit down with him to work in his account. He’s
    soaking up the one-on-one time and asking his dad to do it with him too,” Tanya
    says. “He tends to move quickly through things, and this requires him to be
    meticulous, which is good for him. He can’t read cursive, so we’re helping him
    choose projects with typed records rather than handwritten ones. We want him to
    feel competent, not frustrated.”
  • Luke, 7, is too young to have a FamilySearch account to do his own indexing, Tanya says. “He was sorely disappointed! He likes to look over my shoulder and help me decipher handwriting. We compare how the person wrote the same letter on different parts of a page. He’ll read numbers for me. He likes to try to pronounce the names.”
  • And baby Owen, just under age 2? His main job is to take his afternoon nap. “When Owen is awake, he wants to sit on my lap and snuggle while I’m typing. For him to sit still for even a minute at this age is a bonus, so I’ll take it.”

The Oldest and Youngest Volunteers

What
about the Greenway grandparents? Ron is an experienced indexer who, like his
daughter-in-law Tanya, enjoys the kinds of glimpses the records give him into
history. He also loves when someone makes a record discovery from something he
indexed and then that person sends him a thank-you
message
. “It’s like, wow, this meant something to someone,” he says.

Indexing
was a new experience for his wife, Melanie, who doesn’t use computers often. “We went through one indexing batch, and then
I had to leave the house,” says Ron. “When I came back, she had completed the
project. She was excited she could pull it off. I think she’s going to continue
on—she’s got time on her hands!”

anna and william greenway on a computer together
Anna Greenway gets help indexing old records from her older brother, William.

The youngest
Greenway indexer is Anna, age 8, whose family also lives in Pennsylvania. Her mother,
Lynn, describes how she guides Anna’s participation while ensuring that the
indexing is done accurately. “We are careful to find batches that are
relatively short and are typed. Sometimes I will return a few batches [of
records] before I find one that works. Then we usually play find-and-seek with
the document. She’ll hunt through it to find the birthdate or event place, and
then we’ll type it in. I’m usually the one that helps her, but sometimes her
older brother, William (age 12), helps too.”

Seeing the Bigger Picture

The Greenways set up their family
challenge as a competition. “It’s not about the numbers,” says Tanya, “But for
some of the younger family members, being in friendly competition with their
cousins is motivating. If you want a tip for getting a lot of names quickly,
passenger lists can do it!”

“It’s fun to talk to my grandchildren
about it,” says Ron. “And when the cousins talk to each other, they up their
enthusiasm. Someone suggested having a prize. We may end up giving out lots of
little prizes. The fact that we’re doing this project as a family is the most
exciting thing to me.”

Emily sees this project as incredibly
timely. “Right now, our challenge is the pandemic. Indexing old records lets us
see our challenges in perspective. The world was crazy and chaotic back then
too. Everyone’s always had difficult times; their difficult times were just different.
We can still learn a lot from them. They got through it, and so will we.”

Experience for yourself the benefits
of indexing old records. Better yet, invite others to do the same in a private
indexing group
!

Source: Family Search

Be First to Comment

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *