IN THE NEWS Mormon Tabernacle Choir to Tour East Coast FamilySearch This year the Mormon indexing coor- Tabernacle Choir will tour a dinators have section of North America’s east a new goal for volunteers: coast, opening the tour on indexing in lan- June 20 in Norfolk, Virginia. guages other On Wednesday, June 22, the PHOTOGRAPH BY WELDEN C. ANDERSEN, © IRI than English. choir will perform in Vienna, is far surpassed by the growth The Church owns some 2.4 Virginia. of international records. Projects million rolls of genealogical They will perform in are emerging from a variety of microfilm, totaling some 15 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on countries as more governments billion records to be indexed. Thursday, June 23. and records custodians become Countless other physical On Saturday, June 25, the aware of the services provided records exist throughout the choir will hold matinee and eve- by FamilySearch, Brother world. ning concerts in Chautauqua, Ericson said. “We need more people New York. To begin, FamilySearch engaged in indexing,” Brother On Monday, June 27, the employees take records and Ericson said, “and we are ask- choir will hold matinee and eve- digitize them. These copies are ing people to share this pro- ning performances in Toronto, then gathered into small groups gram with their friends and Canada. called “batches,” available to family members, whether or Tickets for all concerts are on volunteers online. Volunteers not they are members of the sale. More information can be log into FamilySearch, down- Church.” ◼ found online at mormon load a batch, and enter the data tabernaclechoir.com and on the they see on the screen. That BEGIN INDEXING NOW choir’s Facebook page. data is later made available et started by going to more widely to family history Gindexing.familysearch.org. Mormon Channel, researchers. Select one of seven languages to work in Your Channel FamilySearch indexing vol- from the drop-down menu. unteers might include people Click on Get Started. The indexing software In May 2009, the Church whose native language is not will automatically download and launch the launched Mormon Channel, a English (the site is currently application. 24-hour-a-day, 7-days-a-week available in 11 different lan- Practice with a training batch to become radio program found at guages), but it could also include familiar with the software. radio.lds.org. Since then, this people who have language skills Start indexing! You can select a batch from official Church media channel from missionary service, school, any project, organized by countries. ◼ has grown to include Mormon or other training. Messages on YouTube and a April 2011 77 NEWS OF THE CHURCH WORLD BRIEFS Local Church Members has expanded an agreement Respond to Disasters in Australia with Deseret Book to provide Church-produced materials Between December’s through Deseret Book out- flooding that continued into lets. Under the new agree- January and Cyclone Yasi ment, Deseret Book will offer making landfall in northern Distribution materials accord- Queensland on February 2, ing to prices and policies podcast site on iTunes, all acces- Australia has been hard hit by established by the Church. sible from mormonchannel.org. natural disasters in early 2011. Visit Newsroom.lds.org for Local Church members in more details and information. Thousands southern Queensland have assisted with cleanup, fund- Latter-day Saint Charities Find Synergy Provides Clean Water at RootsTech raising, assembling cleaning kits, and distributing relief Nearly a billion people on Conference supplies. Local Church leaders the earth lack access to clean Some 3,000 genealogy began coordinating relief efforts water, often resulting in water- and technology enthusiasts with government officials. borne diseases such as cholera, from around the world—with diarrhea, and typhoid. But thousands more participating “One in a Million” Shares since 2002, the Church has online—participated in the Children’s Stories helped seven million people in first annual RootsTech Family As the Church reaches one more than 5,000 communities History Conference, held in Salt million Primary children, the obtain access to clean water “Water is Lake City, Utah, USA. Friend is sponsoring the “One sources. “Water Is Happiness,” Happiness” on The three-day conference, in a Million” project featuring available on news.lds.org, news.lds.org hosted by FamilySearch— photo and audio slideshows tells about clean shows the story of LDS a service provided by the of individual Primary children water coming to Charities bringing clean water Church of Jesus Christ of around the world. Sierra Leone. to a village in Sierra Leone. ◼ Latter-day Saints—was The slideshows are made designed to bring together to create a sense of commu- those who are involved with nity among the worldwide family history work and those Primary. They will be added to who create the technology throughout the year and can they use. be viewed at lds.org/friend. Conference participants chose from more than 40 classes on Distribution Services various genealogical and techno- Merges with Deseret Book logical interests. Vendors featured To improve efficiency and the latest products, tools, and better serve Church mem- services. ◼ bers, Distribution Services 78 Ensign.