Now Indexing: A Quick Batch

FamilySearch.org sometimes has indexing projects with leftovers. Small batches of a particular group—less than the usual "serving" of records for volunteers to index in one sitting—make up these shrunken collections. The term FamilySearch uses for such a collection is a Quick Batch. Sometimes, the Quick Batch contains only a few records—instead of ten, say, it might only have three records of the same type that need to be indexed. In other cases, the project had already been started by another volunteer who, for whatever reason, was unable to complete the batch; they just needed to find someone willing to finish the job.

No matter which way these Quick Batches find their way on to the list of available projects to index, one thing is for sure: by the time the volunteer reads through the instructions and gets started doing the actual work of indexing, the task is quickly done.

In cases like that, I find myself rolling through two, three, or more such sets. Once I've read the instructions for one Quick Batch, it is like an investment: makes more sense to keep doing more of the same than to mount the learning curve all over again with a different type of record set.

For this month's indexing, I decided to roll right through a Quick Batch for World War I Draft Registration cards for the state of Ohio. Why not? I have roots there, so it's a way to help the cause. We've all been in a centennial mood over the one hundred year anniversary of the end of World War I anyhow, so I just got in the spirit again and typed away. In a snap, I was done with the first set and clicked the submit button. Yay! Confetti. And then the question: Would you like to complete another batch just like that one?

You know my answer would be, yeah, sure. And blip, blip, a few more batches were dispatched. It helped pass the evening, and I know it will eventually be a help to whoever will be researching those World War I ancestors I indexed today. With all of us doing just a little bit on a regular basis, over time, the contribution certainly does make a difference. I know I certainly am glad I can click through digitized record sets online instead of cranking through an entire roll of microfilm in hopes of finding that one solitary name I've been hunting. Participating in indexing projects helps get more of those records out there where they are viewable online—and searchable.

Yes, it is true that not everything we researchers seek is online. By regularly indexing, we are chipping away at that mountain of paper and microfilm, transforming it into searchable images. Someday...someday... that last little record set will be chipped away at until the whole pile is gone. I like to dream like that, but in reality, someday it will be achieved.