Posted by:
Anon for this one
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Date: May 17, 2012 06:17PM
I visited the local Family History Library, a.k.a. The Saddest Place in the Whole World last night with the YM/YW group because of my "calling". It was sad, mostly because the people there had a weighted-down depressed look to them--like there wasn't anything better for them in life except to be there and it was set up in the former gymnasium in a church building which is no longer utilized.
Here's what they're trying to do with the youth: we watched a short film on indexing the 1940 census and then got to sit down with a helper to guide us on our indexing mission. We typed in major data points from the census (names, gender, age, household status, where the residents lived at the time of the last census). This part was interesting. I enjoy looking (even if ever-so-slightly) into how other people lived. The ages, the children's ages, bizarre "lodgers" who lived with people, etc.
This is the best part: when we finished a "batch" of names, it took us to an end screen which tallied how many "points" we had (I indexed 40 names, so I had 40 points). There was a button you could click to "invite" others to index. One of the boys didn't finish and the helper told him that if he clicked a certain button, he could "finish up at home". So, they're making a game out of it for the kids and trying to incorporate it with social media of some type (with the "invite" and competitive angles). I think they are also in it with the youth because (generally) they are computer savvy and might catch the genealogy bug (even though I've given up on the "redeeming your dead" part of the equation, knowing about my ancestors is still interesting--at least I can think about my great-great grandfather and curse his name for ever involving himself in Mormonism).
My favorite part of all? There was a book on the shelf of family histories that said "Die Fugger". I'm sure it was German and related to someone's family history, but certainly made my night.