David, in the purple shirt, has been photographing records for the church since 1985. He cannot give me a count of 27 years of record preservation, but his goal for this year is one-million records. He will possibly never see the end result of his labors, or index a single name, but his countless hours will result in happy faces years in the future.
Just before Kris and I left Utah, I received a list of names from a contact living in New York. Last night I was attempting to expand that information and looking at records on Family Search. While reviewing a 1875 New York State census record, I instantly recognized the standard items of photography I have become very familiar with over the past few weeks. These are items would not receive a second glance unless you were standing next to me in Lima or some other archives using them.
On the census was the family I was looking for with several additional children born between 1870 and 1880. In addition to the names, I thought of a missionary couple standing in archives in New York State doing what we are doing in Peru. The couple had no idea who these records would help or who might index them, but they work hard to obtain the necessary photography accuracy so someone like me could read them. Trust me, there can only be 3/16 of an inch variation. Stacked in the background are books in such poor condition that it took us five hours to photo 500 pages. That was after we cleaned the bug out. Most of these were dead bugs, but they had some living descendants. (Allen Lopez, 27 an RM, uses a mask to keep bug parts away.)
No comments:
Post a Comment