Today is a special indexing day. The indexing community is working hard to achieve a goal of indexing 5 million names from the 1940 census in just one day. All indexers have been asked to complete at least one more batch than they normally do in a single day. Today, I decided to try something new. Because I can speak/read spanish, I decided to help out with the Puerto Rico census. It was interesting that they did not have all of the same questions that the states did. It was also interesting seeing the different ways they record the surnames. And, it was interesting having to finally use international characters on some of the names. I really took my time to ensure I recorded everything as accurately as possible.
After I finished Puerto Rico, I did Georgia. It was interesting to know that segregation between races was very prevalent in 1940 but yet there were black and white families living next to each other in the deep south. I wonder what that was like. I would assume it was just like I've learned it was. But, I hope that there were areas where folks actually were good neighbors and talked with each other.
I also completed South Carolina. There was one family where the father/head was 78 years old. His wife was 19 and their son was 3 and daughter was 1. Ewwww....that means that the wife had the the son when she was 16 and probably got pregnant with him when she was 15...and her husband would have been 74 at the time. Ew. Gross. Can't even imagine copulating with a 74 year old at my current age, let alone at 15!
The census is now 75% arbitrated and searchable. They believe it will be completely finished by the end of July. What a miraculous result!
Today was a really nice day in church. Many of the girls and most of the leaders got up in Sacrament Meeting and shared their testimonies of the effect Girls Camp had on their relationship with Christ, including me. Then, we had a special testimony time in YW for those who wanted to do so there instead. I saw amazing changes in a number of the YW through this experience.
I am sad to likely be losing one of my newest Laurels soon as their family is pretty surely moving soon. She has gone through a number of significant struggles and I have seen her grow and blossom over the last two months as she's worked on camp and now been at camp. I will miss her. I will miss my three outgoing Laurels as well. They have all now graduated from high school and are all almost 18 so their time in YW will soon be over. One had her last day today. The next will be in a few weeks and the next just a week after that. I'll have gone from just 4 Laurels when I first came in to YW a year ago, to 10 now, then down to 6 again by the time they have all moved on or moved away. Then, I won't get anymore until November.
I can't get over how much camp increased my love for all of these young women. I just want to be there for them and watch their testimonies of Christ grow while they mature into even more beautiful young women.
No comments:
Post a Comment