A national index of U.S. marriage records is coming

I just received an email from FamilySearch Indexing that made my heart skip a beat.

First, they announced that indexers have nearly completed indexing the 1930 U.S. census. Way to go indexers! The problem with this is that indexers who are used to indexing this census will need to choose different projects to work on now. There's lots of projects – marriage records, military records, birth records and more – from around the world.

The email went on to recommend that indexers "try your hand at local marriage records". The next sentence caught my eye, and I have to admit, made my heart beat a little faster. They wrote:

"Did you know FamilySearch is creating a national index of United States marriage records? Marriages are typically recorded and archived only at the county level, so a nationwide index will create a lot of value for researchers."

I then thought about how England has done it right for so long. Their vital registration indexes are country-wide back to 1837. Finding a marriage record in the U.S. has always been more challenging because we do not have a national agency to which marriages are reported.

Just the thought of someday having a national marriage index makes me want to work a little harder in my FamilySearch Indexing efforts. Sure is exciting to be involved in something so important! Volunteer at http://indexing.familysearch.org.