I've indexed a bunch of names. What should I do with the information?
For the past few years I've been indexing the records of a small town in Italy. This indexing was not done through the FamilySearch indexing program, but I did it on my own. What do i do with all this information? I'd hate to have it be redone by someone else.
Answers
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If you indexed them, you must have been using some program to do it. I don't understand how you would do it on your own. The only way to get it into Family Search is for them to make the records available to index and then put it in the indexing program, which is obsolete now.
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If the data is all old enough so there are no privacy issues, you could put it the data in a pdf and upload the pdf as a book to the Internet Archive https://archive.org
Details of the uploading process https://help.archive.org/?s=upload
I doubt very much that FamilySearch would be interested. I once wrote to the FamilySearch Library about an interesting article I had come across with cemetery transcriptions. There was a total lack of interest.
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I put the information into Excel.
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I assume at some future date FamilySearch will try to digitize these records. I don't want that work re-done. Are you saying that FamilySearch would not be interested in my digitized records?
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When Family Search obtains records to index, they have contracts with the custodians of the records. There are permissions and legalities involved. They can't just do what they want with a country's or state's documents. That's one thing. And they wouldn't just take a person's indexed data without having the actual documents or images of the documents. There's a whole process involved.
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I am not connected with FamilySearch, but my impression is that they would not be interested, as set out by barbaragailsmith1 in her post of May 7, 2025 (or perhaps some may see this as May 6) above.
That is why I suggested an upload to the Internet Archive as a pdf to make a book, so that the work you have done would be of benefit to others.
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I would suggest contacting FS and asking them about your indexing project. You have years of work invested, so please get your answer from FS. Here is an 2017 document from FS about donations. I would use the phone number near the bottom hoping it is still current, and ask to be connected with proper person to help you with the current guidelines. If your work was translated from Polish etc, be sure to mention that. Good luck and thanks for your efforts. If FS can't use it, don't give up, someone will want it.
https://edge.fscdn.org/assets/pdf/FamilySearch%20donation%20guidelines_Revised_10132017-1da0060944bafafaa6fce2b5244283d5.pdf
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You can upload the content you have indexed using this platform: https://www.italianparishrecords.org/home
There are instances where FamilySearch does accept these kinds of donations, but they are rare based on format and legal issues that are difficult to navigate.
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