Kadena Okinawa Temple and Family History

   A month ago, I posted about an update on improving place names on FamilySearch . Well, I checked back on the feature, which is available online and via the FamilySearch app, and now there are over 90 different locations to choose from. (Specifically, there were a whopping 93 locales listed.) Some of the locations are nations/countries that no longer exist today, such as Prussia. This is definitely a welcome change. Based on this change, there appears to be plenty of work left to be done. So if you are looking for a "small and simple" way to help out or just  an opportunity to use your foreign language skills , try out the improving place names feature on FamilySearch.

Probably the most well-known alternative family history project among Church members is indexing. Most members have heard of indexing and many have participated in it.  What Is Indexing? For anyone unfamiliar or unsure, indexing is a way to digitize documents. Specifically, you type up the contents of historical documents so as to make those contents searchable. A variety of documents have been or could be indexed; some of the most common document types include census records, marriage certificates, and voter records. Traditionally, these documents were maintained in hardcopy and later on microfilm or microfiche . While microfilm/microfiche allowed the documents to preserved in a more space-efficient manner, be distributed far wider than the original hardcopies, and even potentially be uploaded online, there was still a critical shortcoming: the information was still generally inaccessible. Finding information would require a person searching through literally thousands or millions...

  A little more than two months ago, I posted about an easy but less common way to participate in temple and family history work: improving place names on FamilySearch . It appears that there has been a lot of participation in this project and a satisfactory amount of data has been collected for the majority of countries and localities. As of January 3, 2020, only the following six location options are now listed: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, and United States. But don't let these facts dissuade you from participating in this fun and easy family history project.

One less common way to participate in temple and family history work is to join in a newly started project to improve place names. You can help out via FamilySearch.org or via the FamilySearch app. Here is where the project is found on the website: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/improve-place-names/ . In the app, just click on the three lines icon on the top left and you'll find the project listed as the eighth item. At the opening screen, you can choose to select a specific country you'd like to work on or you can leave it to chance and stick with the default setting of "Any Country." Currently there are 20 different countries or localities listed. (There were actually 42 options listed just a few weeks ago.) [[Update: As of January 3, 2020, only the following six location options are now listed: Austria, Czechoslavika, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, and United States.]] [[Update #2: As of February 8, 2021, there were 93 six location options listed.]] For those of you...