Indexing is good for the Soul

I'm not very good at family history work, but I love indexing!  If you don't know what indexing is, you are basically given old written documents like a census and typing the information into the internet database so that it's searchable.  This way people who are looking for their ancestors can search for them all in one place.  It's so fun!

Today I was indexing some death records from Houston, TX.  I got to look at all the records of people who died in Houston on November 13, 14, and 15 in 1922.  It was so interesting to see the reasons for death.  Some of them make my heart sink.

Little Alberta Williams died at the age of 5 from burns.  It also said that her father owned a bakery, and it makes me wonder if that's where her burns came from.

Another women whose occupation read "housewife" died at age 23 due to heart problems.  I have a feeling she didn't get to be a housewife for very long, and that makes me sad.

So.. if you're feeling like starting a useful hobby, I would really recommend indexing! And I'd love to do it with you or help you too! Plus, they are releasing the 1940 Census to index in a month which will have living people on it and you can pick which cities to do so you can see the names of people you know (cool!!)