Tracey Brough, a volunteer for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, just completed her 20,000th family history indexing name.
Family history indexing is the process of extracting names from digital images of historical documents and creating online searchable indexes from the gathered information.
What makes her achievement even more remarkable is the fact that Tracey can only use one of her hands, and only one finger on that hand. She also cannot speak.
Tracey looks at the original handwritten record on her monitor, and then keys the information into the database. For each entry she types the individual name, date and location of death, their occupation, and other vital information.
Her 20 year experience working in microfilms and computer indexing - including the entering of thousands of names of United States Civil War soldiers - has helped her to become very accurate.
Tracey has a goal to complete 30,000 Australian names before her volunteer missionary service ends in May 2010.
Her work for the Public Records of Victoria Project will benefit genealogy researchers the world over.
Other indexers are also working on the probate records from the Australian state of Victoria, 1853-1989.
When the project is complete, the data will be available on www.FamilySearch.org, where anyone can look for their forebears’ information through easily searchable electronic databases from the Victoria record file.
Tracey is one of tens of thousands of Latter-day Saint family history volunteers worldwide helping to provide genealogical information for anyone interested in researching their family tree.
Even though she cannot speak, Tracey finds other ways to communicate. When she is happy, for example, her face lights up. When asked how she feels about reaching this milestone, her countenance shows how thrilled she is.
