Digital Only

Finding Joy in Indexing When Reading the Records Was Hard

By Daniel Wade McCombs 

The author lives in Utah, USA.

When I felt like I couldn’t read the handwriting on the old records, a lesson from Church history helped me move forward.

a collage composed of a temple, a magnifying glass, and family history records

I’d never been very committed to indexing. I love temple work and have used FamilySearch.org to find family members’ names to take to the temple. I believe the Lord has inspired technological advancements to further and hasten His work. And I understand that indexing performs a critical function of making searchable records accessible. But my efforts at indexing had still been intermittent and weak.

Enter COVID-19 and temple closures. In the April 2020 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson said: “While worshipping in the temple is presently not possible, I invite you to increase your participation in family history, including family history research and indexing. I promise that as you increase your time in temple and family history work, you will increase and improve your ability to hear Him.”¹ Right after this invitation was given, I was quarantined because of exposure to someone with COVID-19. I decided to use that time to try indexing again.

At first my experience was the same as before—slow and frustrating. I don’t easily understand other people’s handwriting or the formats of different forms. Then I remembered what I learned in Saints, volume 1, when Joseph Smith was translating the Book of Mormon: “He had to be humble and exercise faith as he studied the characters.”² At that same time, Oliver Cowdery was unable to translate, in part because he “took no thought save it [were] to ask” (Doctrine and Covenants 9:7). I didn’t want to find myself making the same mistake as Oliver, so I applied myself with a little more enthusiasm and commitment.

Tips for Indexing

Reading records can be difficult, especially when you start indexing. Try these ideas to make it easier:

• Begin with a prayer for divine help to read the records.

• Stay with a single project (set of records). The more you do records within the same project, the more familiar the handwriting will become, and the easier it will be to read.

• Look for handwriting helps within the project. You can find these by clicking on “Project Instructions” > “General Indexing Guidelines” > “Handwriting Help.”

Ever since that moment, instead of wincing or shying away from difficult indexing projects, I relish the opportunity to work hand in hand with the Lord in indexing names so that those who have passed can become one step closer to receiving ordinances in the temple. As I study out in my mind the details of the records before me, I feel greater patience in my persistence to understand the records, and I recognize the Lord’s hand in my understanding when it comes. I have felt the fulfillment of President Nelson’s promise—I am increasing in my ability to hear the Lord.

I am thankful for the opportunity to participate in the work of salvation and exaltation! Indexing is an amazing opportunity to emulate the Prophet Joseph Smith in laboring to comprehend what would otherwise be incomprehensible to us but can become clear through the gift and power of God.

Discover More

• Find an indexing opportunity.

• Read about several families’ experiences in “Indexing Is Vital.”

• Find answers to ten common questions about indexing in “FamilySearch Indexing: Easier Than Ever.”

Notes

1. Russell M. Nelson, “Hear Him,” Liahona, May 2020, 90.

2. Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, vol 1., The Standard of Truth, 1815–1846 [2018], 46; see also “All Is Lost,” Liahona, July 2018, 13–17.