50,000 Volunteers to Make History in Just 24 Hours

The largest genealogy organization in the world, FamilySearch International, just announced today that they are going to head up a world-wide challenge. Meridian Magazine reports that this challenge is aimed at getting the highest number of indexers working online in one day. Mike Judson, the organization’s indexing workforce manager, says the goal is to surpass their highest day yet, which is 49,025 individual volunteer indexers:

[pull_quote_center]Our stated goal is 50,000 volunteers participating in a single day, though we think the potential exists to surpass that mark by a considerable amount.[/pull_quote_center]

In order to contribute to this history-making event, all volunteers need to do is submit one batch. Judson says that due to the hundreds of thousands of volunteers they have had, and with thousands joining each week, “breaking the record won’t take much if people will commit to spend the 30 minutes or so required to finish and submit a batch.”

[quote_box_right]”Breaking the record won’t take much if people will commit to spend the 30 minutes or so required to finish and submit a batch.”[/quote_box_right]

The event will take place starting at 6:00 p.m. MDT on Sunday, July 20 and will continue for 24 hours, ending at 5:59 p.m. MDT on Monday, July 21. It does not matter what language one speaks or where one lives—as long as there is an internet connection, then individuals can participate. FamilySearch is asking that all previous volunteers and many new volunteers contribute to this record-breaking event. As the event’s Facebook page says, “everyone is needed. Everyone can make a difference!”

[quote_box_right]”Everyone is needed. Everyone can make a difference!”[/quote_box_right]

Indexing—the process of transcribing information from historical documents—allows records to be searchable for free online, and is vital to family history research. Since FamilySearch began indexing back in 2006, over one billion records are now searchable online for free, due to the crowdsourcing effort. Learn more about

indexing and how it works in the video below:

Go to the event’s Facebook page to RSVP, and learn more about indexing and family history research at FamilySearch.org.

Let’s help FamilySearch reach the goal of 50,000 indexing volunteers and make July 20-21 go down in the history books!