By Rosemary Collins

Published: Tuesday, 24 January 2023 at 12:00 am

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About FamilySearch:

FamilySearch is the world’s largest free family history website. Thanks to the transcription work of FamilySearch volunteer transcribers, the website boasts over a billion free online records.

About the project:

We’re excited this year to work with volunteers on crew lists from British merchant ships compiled at English ports in 1857. These records have service information for the crew members and other interesting information. They tell an interesting story for many to discover about the seafaring ancestors. Volunteers will help us transcribe the name, age, birthplace, port of registry, and event date.

How to take part in the FamilySearch project:

Step 1

Go to the FamilySearch volunteer page. Before joining this project, you will need to register for a free account on the FamilySearch website, which you can do by clicking the ‘Create Account’ button at the top right of the page and following the instructions. Then, click on the ‘Indexing’ option on the page and sign into your account.

Step 2

Click the blue button that says ‘Find a Project’. You will be shown a pop-up box with a list of projects. Go to the option called ‘UK, England – Crew Lists, 1857’ and click the button that says ‘Index’.

Step 3

You will be shown an image of a record and asked ‘Should this image be indexed?’ If the image has a list of names on it, click ‘Yes’.

Step 4

The first thing you will be asked to transcribe is ‘Register Year’. This is the year under the box marked ‘Date of Register’.

Step 5

Transcribe the information on the record into the boxes given. Where the record does not supply the information, press Ctrl + B on your keyboard (or Command + B if you use a Mac computer) to enter the information as ‘<BLANK>’.

Step 6

To transcribe the next record, click the arrow to the right of ‘Entry [number] of 25’. Continue doing this until you have transcribed all the records.

Step 7

If there are fewer records than the 25 entries required, fill in all the boxes on the remaining record slots as ‘Blank’. When you have finished, click ‘Submit Batch’ at the bottom.

Contact on the day:

If you have any problems on the day, please email me on emily.oldroyd@familysearch.org. Thank you for supporting this project!

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