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!
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