Meteor Showers and World Archives Contributors


I hope you’ll forgive me if I get a little personal and wax a bit philosophical today.

 

I live in the Rocky Mountains, high up on a bench, at the foot of a really big mountain.  So, Tuesday morning at about 2:00 am I stepped out onto my back porch to watch the Leonids.  As I sat there in my rocker, wrapped in a heavy blanket, looking out at the trillions of stars in anticipation of the meteor shower I was really humbled by the vastness of the universe.  It made me feel really, really small.  But, at the same time there was a feeling of significance, of being part of something so much greater.

 

I sat there for a while basking in that feeling and marveling at the “shooting stars” as they streaked across the night sky in bursts and clusters or one at a time, one right after another, over and over again.  It was truly spectacular!  The show, as if it were just for me, ended only when the cold became too much to bear and my eyes could barely stay open for the late hour.

 

As I awoke to my morning a few hours later my mind quickly drifted to the things of my work day – monitoring and tracking the progress of the Ancestry World Archives Project and reaching out to this amazing community.  There were blog posts to write, ad campaigns to analyze, planning for 2010 to attempt.  I had a couple hours of quiet before work to contemplate my experience of the night before but work kept getting mixed up in those thoughts.  I tried to focus my mind but names and numbers, statistics and spreadsheets, tweets and turns of phrase kept swirling around in my head.  I finally gave up the fight and let my mind wander where it would.  And here’s the conclusion I came to in that quiet morning after that late night of star-gazing.

 

Thousands of you key millions of records every week!

 

Some of you key thousands upon thousands of records – bright bursts of record counts and accuracy ratings.  A few of you key in clusters – collaborating on the message boards with all the passion of true family historians for the projects you work on.  A great, great many of you key in isolation, a few minutes here or there with a cup of tea on hand as you wind down your busy days, one right after another, over and over again.

 

In concert, your efforts are a sight to behold!  I am really humbled by the enormity of your collective contribution.  It makes me feel really, really small with my 30 or 40 records a week.  But, at the same time I feel so significant, being part of this incredible endeavor.  The efforts of every single one of you bring FREE family history record indexes to the public.  And I, for one, am really glad I have a front row seat to this particular show.

 

Until next time – Happy Keying!

 

P.S. – There are several thousand of you that have joined us in the past few weeks.  Welcome! Many of you have successfully registered and started keying.  Some of you, especially those of you who found us on Facebook, are still wondering what Ancestry World Archives Project is all about.  Click here to learn more about what we are doing and how you can help.  Then sign up, brew your own cup of tea and start keying!

Information and Links

Join the fray by commenting, tracking what others have to say, or linking to it from your blog.


Other Posts

Write a Comment

Take a moment to comment and tell us what you think. Some basic HTML is allowed for formatting.

Reader Comments

For a moment there I was with you on the back porch! Made me look at my keying in a totally different light. Thanks for sharing. Dot xx

I liked you description of abeautiful, crisp nightin the mountains I`ve always wanted to visit!
Now picture me in my little house in Gloucestershire,England(the Best County in this country!!)in the pouring rain and a gale blowing!!
Quite a contrast,eh!!

Thanks, Christa. I needed that.

Thank you. It is nice to know you are appreciated.

I could see those stars with you too.

Your post really touched me. I just joined the World Archives Project and am happy to be able to give back to the community that has given so much to me in my efforts to know my family.

I too find it amazing that we are all so spread out across an enormous world, each sitting at our keyboards in our little domestic space but contruting to something so much biger and long lasting than all of us!

PS. I’m in Cockermouth, Cumbria in the UK who many of you may have heard got badly flooded as our River Cocker burst its banks over the last 48 hours. We are okay – our little town is devastated but we will pick ourselves up and ‘carry on’, despite the thought of Christmas being pretty grim for many of us.

First, I loved Christa’s post on the starry night in the mountains.

Then I hit down to earth again reading Claire’s post on the flooding and the outlook for Christmas. No one should have to look forward to Christmas like that. Is there some way some of us can help?

What a great visual of something I have been lucky enough to be a part of. I live at the base of one of the Wasatch Mountains.

I agree with Diann Cosgrove. Is there anything we can do to help? Together we know a lot of people.

Thank you for the wonderful description, Crista. I tried to see the stars, but living in Denver couldn’t see a thing, of course. I just started researching our family tree and also would like to help with the keying, have, however, been hesitant because I don’t want to mess it up.
So far, I am having a wonderful time.

Thanks for your concern – we are okay. We are northern folk and face this sort of event with very practical stoicism. We will get organised and pull together, and make the best of things. Downside – we’ve all lost something, Upside – we are all alive. It could be so much worse!

Beautiful description of a starry, starry night. Glad to be a little twinkle in ancestry’s sky.

Feel for you Claire, but as a northerner myself i know how the spirit works through adversity. Good luck.

Wow! What a beautiful way to describe us and our contributions! Thank you for such a lovely compliment, and also, thank you for providing such an engaging and non-financial way to contribute to this
very worthy cause.
In these uncertain times, it is for those of us who want to help preserve our history, but are also raising young families, or living on a fixed income, a great way to feel that we can still participate and make a difference even though we cannot afford to make a cash donation.
Thanks again for the opportunity and for the lovely compliment.

To Claire;
My thoughts and prayers for you and your family and neighbors.

Lovely description Crista,I found it very moving.

It’s so good to know also that there are many doing the same thing as myself too, it does help…

HI CHRISTA; I HAVE FOUND THE ANCESTRY
WORLD ARCHIVES PROJECT BY ACCIDENT
AND SIGNED UP IMMEDIATLY: NOW I AM
HOOKED ON IT: I KEY IN THE NYC
NAT: INDEXES SINCE THERE ARE PRETTY
EASY AND VERY INTERESTING AS WELL:
MY LAP TOP SITS IN BERLIN GERMANY
BUT I SPEAK AND READ ENGLISH SINCE
I HAVE BEEN WORKING FOR OVER 20 YEARS
IN NEW YORK CITY AND NOW I AM RETIRED: GREETING FROM BERLIN
RENATE WALKER

It is strange but I had recently been having similar thoughts but you put it very magically. I am in Sweden but from Ireland and I notice from the times that blogs are posted when people are up or signing off. So it is nice to know it is also continuous around the world – as some of us sleep, others are beavering away….

It is also through this site that I have met a distant cousin of my husbands and many blanks have been filled in!

My thoughts are also with you Claire as I have family in England and Ireland who have all experienced the horrible weather.

Regards to all everywhere!