545. Wayne, age 85, and his amazing story about indexing! His cancer isn't gone --
Our nephew who is a bishop asked us to write up the story of how much indexing Wayne has done, and the reasons behind it. He plans to give it as the 5th Sunday lesson to the Priesthood and Relief Society this coming Sunday. You can have a preview, with pictures! And the update on his cancer is that the cancer is not gone! We wrote last week that the tumor was gone, but the results of the biopsies came in showing there is still cancer there. He has decided to not do chemo at his age, 85, and hope he feels good for quite a while in the days to come. He still has trouble swallowing, and his throat and esophagus are sore, from the radiation. But he is a trooper!
Indexing and Family History by Wayne D Eckman, and Paralee (Pal) Miles Eckman
Shortly after coming home from their 2nd mission to Connecticut in May, 2000, Wayne and Pal went to California to visit their son who lives in Oceanside. While there, Wayne began feeling ill, and was taken to a hospital, where they did a lot of tests, and he ended being in Intensive Care for 12 days, with respiratory failure. On the 2nd day when he was really bad, and his oxygen level was going down while they were giving him 100% oxygen, an LDS Bishop Halladay was in the hall on the phone talking to his counselor. They were going to give a blessing to a lady also in the ICU, (who ended up passing away) and Pal asked him to also give Wayne a blessing. He asked carefully what the doctors had said, etc., and at that point in time, it wasn’t known if he would survive. But in the blessing he was told he would yet live to enjoy his family and many wonderful times with them. He also was told he would like to do Temple work, and genealogy, or Family History. He hadn’t done either of them at that time.
After spending 15 days in that hospital, 12 in ICU, and resting a week, they came back home, and it took 3 or 4 months to regain his strength. In a few months after that he requested to become a Temple Ordinance Worker. He did that about 7 years until January 2008 when Pal and Wayne were called as Church Service missionaries to an assisted living center called The Meadows, in their stake. He was a counselor to the Branch President.
Together they were called to oversee the new Family History Center there. A retired doctor living at The Meadows bought 4 to 6 new computers, and The Meadows allowed them an unused room in which to set them up. Two times each week, for 2 hours Wayne and Pal helped several residents, some in wheel chairs, learn indexing. Pal had done some indexing before but Wayne hadn’t used a computer much at all. At that time most of the records available were censuses. They worked up quite quickly, and Wayne learned to love the fascination of the information, the various forms of handwriting, etc., and especially the value of what we were doing. It became a hobby for him in his spare time at home. He was released for 2 years from the Temple while they were there, and then returned to Ordinance work, 2 shifts each week after they were released from the Meadows in January 2010. To this day, they still have 6 computers in a small room at The Meadows, and Church service missionaries continue to help residents index. Many assisted living centers could help provide that service all over the world!
Wayne had a triple heart bypass in December, 2011, and was in the hospital 8 days. After recuperating enough, he again continued indexing. He had a hip replacement about a year later, in November 2012. Each time after rehab, he really looked forward to resuming his indexing, and it gave him something to do in his recovery.
He kept resuming his Temple ordinance work after each health problem until in Sept. 2014 when he had to be released after he was in the hospital 4 days for pneumonia, and was too weak. During all this time he kept up his indexing as much as he could. He was in the hospital 4 days in 2014 during Christmas holidays. Then from February 15 to April 15, 2015, this year, he was in the hospital 4 times, twice in ICU, with kidney problems, which affected his lungs and heart. In between hospital stays he went to a rehabilitation center, and wasn’t able to do indexing for over 2 months and really missed it. About April 15th they started him on kidney dialysis, and he had 4 treatments in 6 days in the hospital. One Sunday during that time it seemed he wouldn’t survive the day with heart problems also, and a returned missionary grandson gave Wayne a blessing. He was told his mission wasn’t through yet, and the Lord had more for him to do. This surprised Pal, as he had been seriously ill for most of the winter. But as he stayed on dialysis after that for 3 days each week, 4 hours each time, he gained strength and began again to index. It gave him such joy feeling he was able to do something useful to the Lord, even when he couldn’t do much but stay home.
Most months he was indexing from 3,000 to 5,000. The most he did in one month was around 17,000, working on censuses. He figures out ways to simplify doing each type of record. Some handwriting is very difficult, and takes prayer and studying to understand the names. Each batch of from 15 to 50 names is done by 2 different indexers, anywhere in the world. Then an arbitrator has a special computer program which shows both batches, and where they are different. The arbitrator decides which they think is right, or corrects it if neither are right. Then they are put on Family Search so people can find their ancestors. You can’t be an arbitrator until requested by your stake, and trained. You need to have indexed many records and be familiar with the many types, such as military records, immigration records, etc. It helps keep your brain sharp as you age!
Currently there also are many obituaries in batches, and every name mentioned in an obituary is recorded, even if living, as the newspaper they appeared in is considered a public record. He has been fascinated with the stories about people in the obituaries – some famous people, and some quite rascals – it’s all in the obituaries!
There are many helps to guide you. Also each ward has an indexing leader, who could come to your home and carefully guide you, and teach you. There are tutorial videos on Family Search, and if you live close to a Family History Center, the workers there can train you also. You can do it on your own time, and at your own pace. If you don’t understand or like a certain batch it can be returned and you can get another one. Indexing can be done on any device which gets the internet, and has an alphabet keyboard. It can be fascinating to teenagers as well as any age of adults and can be done in small increments. Many wards all over the world have teens who do a lot of indexing instead of playing video games! If you do it regularly, you will want to challenge yourself to do more. It’s addicting!
Wayne only uses his 2 index fingers to do indexing! He didn’t learn to type using all his fingers. But he has learned to do it quickly, and often is watching a ball game or maybe a BYU devotional on the TV that is set up right next to his computer. He doesn’t know how to do e mail, or facebook, etc. He only does indexing! You don’t have to be a computer expert to try it. And if you make mistakes, an arbitrator will fix it, so you don’t need to stress over it. There are ways to access your indexed records after they have been arbitrated, so you can see areas you missed or could improve on. After being arbitrated the names appear on Family Search for people to find their own ancestors.
In August this year Wayne began having trouble swallowing, and an endoscopy showed a cancerous tumor in his esophagus. After having radiation for it 5 days a week, for 33 sessions, an endoscopy showed the cancer isn’t completely gone. Wayne has decided at age 85 to not have chemotherapy. He will continue to index as much as he can each day as long as he feels like it. As of today, Tuesday November 24, 2015, he has done 671,734 names indexed, and has done 73,006 names arbitrated. Of those, 6,318 have been this month already. The computer keeps track of your numbers by the month.
It is difficult to figure out how many names he indexed on average during about a 96 month time, with operations, hospital stays, etc. in the mix. Each batch is calculated as to difficulty, from 1 to 5, and Wayne does most names with a difficulty of 3. Those numbers are also calculated and called points. So Wayne has 1,109,531 points to date. He would like to live to have a million names of actually indexed names, but at the rate he is going it would have to take 5 or 6 more years. Only the Lord knows if that is possible! But it is truly fulfilling the blessing he had in May of 2000 in the ICU in California!
Pal, age 81, also does some indexing and arbitration, but she has spent more time on research, and has been on 2 Family History Missions during the time he was an ordinance worker. She has put a lot of life stories of ancestors on her blog which she has done several times each week for 2 years, and has readers from all over the world. (grandmapalspocket.blogspot.com) She also has put many pioneer ancestor stories on Family Search, and added photos to her ancestors pages there. If anyone wants to learn how to do that, there are those at Family History Centers that can teach you, and it is all part of Family History work!
Together Wayne and Pal have written a 635 page book of their life stories, and a book of the letters they wrote for 14 months when he was in the Army in 1953 to 1955. They also have had printed a book with life stories of Wayne’s parents and ancestors, and a similar book about Pal’s ancestors. They have given copies to each of their 9 children and 29 grandchildren. They love Family History!
On the right you can see our wedding picture, and on the left some pencil drawings by our grandson, Sam Lieske. Also in the mirror is reflecting some of the mural of Hawaii on our bedroom wall I made a few years ago.
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Indexing and Family History by Wayne D Eckman, and Paralee (Pal) Miles Eckman
Shortly after coming home from their 2nd mission to Connecticut in May, 2000, Wayne and Pal went to California to visit their son who lives in Oceanside. While there, Wayne began feeling ill, and was taken to a hospital, where they did a lot of tests, and he ended being in Intensive Care for 12 days, with respiratory failure. On the 2nd day when he was really bad, and his oxygen level was going down while they were giving him 100% oxygen, an LDS Bishop Halladay was in the hall on the phone talking to his counselor. They were going to give a blessing to a lady also in the ICU, (who ended up passing away) and Pal asked him to also give Wayne a blessing. He asked carefully what the doctors had said, etc., and at that point in time, it wasn’t known if he would survive. But in the blessing he was told he would yet live to enjoy his family and many wonderful times with them. He also was told he would like to do Temple work, and genealogy, or Family History. He hadn’t done either of them at that time.
After spending 15 days in that hospital, 12 in ICU, and resting a week, they came back home, and it took 3 or 4 months to regain his strength. In a few months after that he requested to become a Temple Ordinance Worker. He did that about 7 years until January 2008 when Pal and Wayne were called as Church Service missionaries to an assisted living center called The Meadows, in their stake. He was a counselor to the Branch President.
Together they were called to oversee the new Family History Center there. A retired doctor living at The Meadows bought 4 to 6 new computers, and The Meadows allowed them an unused room in which to set them up. Two times each week, for 2 hours Wayne and Pal helped several residents, some in wheel chairs, learn indexing. Pal had done some indexing before but Wayne hadn’t used a computer much at all. At that time most of the records available were censuses. They worked up quite quickly, and Wayne learned to love the fascination of the information, the various forms of handwriting, etc., and especially the value of what we were doing. It became a hobby for him in his spare time at home. He was released for 2 years from the Temple while they were there, and then returned to Ordinance work, 2 shifts each week after they were released from the Meadows in January 2010. To this day, they still have 6 computers in a small room at The Meadows, and Church service missionaries continue to help residents index. Many assisted living centers could help provide that service all over the world!
This spot in our bedroom is where we both spend a lot of time on computers.
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Wayne continued to index a lot, and in about 2011, due to the volume of his indexing, both Pal and Wayne were called to be Stake Indexing Coordinators, which they did for about 2 years. At that time they were also trained to be arbitrators. During that time Salt Lake challenged their stake and others to learn to do Italian birth records, in preparation for the Temple being built in Rome, Italy. They were trained in this and trained others. Although they didn’t know Italian, there are word lists, etc., and in St. George there is a class every Thursday night to teach anyone to do Italian indexing. If anyone knows a foreign language the Church is especially anxious for you to try doing records in that language. There are so many records that have been indexed in English, but foreign countries don’t have many records to search for their ancestry. There are many helps in Family Search on the internet. Wayne had a triple heart bypass in December, 2011, and was in the hospital 8 days. After recuperating enough, he again continued indexing. He had a hip replacement about a year later, in November 2012. Each time after rehab, he really looked forward to resuming his indexing, and it gave him something to do in his recovery.
He kept resuming his Temple ordinance work after each health problem until in Sept. 2014 when he had to be released after he was in the hospital 4 days for pneumonia, and was too weak. During all this time he kept up his indexing as much as he could. He was in the hospital 4 days in 2014 during Christmas holidays. Then from February 15 to April 15, 2015, this year, he was in the hospital 4 times, twice in ICU, with kidney problems, which affected his lungs and heart. In between hospital stays he went to a rehabilitation center, and wasn’t able to do indexing for over 2 months and really missed it. About April 15th they started him on kidney dialysis, and he had 4 treatments in 6 days in the hospital. One Sunday during that time it seemed he wouldn’t survive the day with heart problems also, and a returned missionary grandson gave Wayne a blessing. He was told his mission wasn’t through yet, and the Lord had more for him to do. This surprised Pal, as he had been seriously ill for most of the winter. But as he stayed on dialysis after that for 3 days each week, 4 hours each time, he gained strength and began again to index. It gave him such joy feeling he was able to do something useful to the Lord, even when he couldn’t do much but stay home.
Most months he was indexing from 3,000 to 5,000. The most he did in one month was around 17,000, working on censuses. He figures out ways to simplify doing each type of record. Some handwriting is very difficult, and takes prayer and studying to understand the names. Each batch of from 15 to 50 names is done by 2 different indexers, anywhere in the world. Then an arbitrator has a special computer program which shows both batches, and where they are different. The arbitrator decides which they think is right, or corrects it if neither are right. Then they are put on Family Search so people can find their ancestors. You can’t be an arbitrator until requested by your stake, and trained. You need to have indexed many records and be familiar with the many types, such as military records, immigration records, etc. It helps keep your brain sharp as you age!
Currently there also are many obituaries in batches, and every name mentioned in an obituary is recorded, even if living, as the newspaper they appeared in is considered a public record. He has been fascinated with the stories about people in the obituaries – some famous people, and some quite rascals – it’s all in the obituaries!
There are many helps to guide you. Also each ward has an indexing leader, who could come to your home and carefully guide you, and teach you. There are tutorial videos on Family Search, and if you live close to a Family History Center, the workers there can train you also. You can do it on your own time, and at your own pace. If you don’t understand or like a certain batch it can be returned and you can get another one. Indexing can be done on any device which gets the internet, and has an alphabet keyboard. It can be fascinating to teenagers as well as any age of adults and can be done in small increments. Many wards all over the world have teens who do a lot of indexing instead of playing video games! If you do it regularly, you will want to challenge yourself to do more. It’s addicting!
Wayne only uses his 2 index fingers to do indexing! He didn’t learn to type using all his fingers. But he has learned to do it quickly, and often is watching a ball game or maybe a BYU devotional on the TV that is set up right next to his computer. He doesn’t know how to do e mail, or facebook, etc. He only does indexing! You don’t have to be a computer expert to try it. And if you make mistakes, an arbitrator will fix it, so you don’t need to stress over it. There are ways to access your indexed records after they have been arbitrated, so you can see areas you missed or could improve on. After being arbitrated the names appear on Family Search for people to find their own ancestors.
In August this year Wayne began having trouble swallowing, and an endoscopy showed a cancerous tumor in his esophagus. After having radiation for it 5 days a week, for 33 sessions, an endoscopy showed the cancer isn’t completely gone. Wayne has decided at age 85 to not have chemotherapy. He will continue to index as much as he can each day as long as he feels like it. As of today, Tuesday November 24, 2015, he has done 671,734 names indexed, and has done 73,006 names arbitrated. Of those, 6,318 have been this month already. The computer keeps track of your numbers by the month.
It is difficult to figure out how many names he indexed on average during about a 96 month time, with operations, hospital stays, etc. in the mix. Each batch is calculated as to difficulty, from 1 to 5, and Wayne does most names with a difficulty of 3. Those numbers are also calculated and called points. So Wayne has 1,109,531 points to date. He would like to live to have a million names of actually indexed names, but at the rate he is going it would have to take 5 or 6 more years. Only the Lord knows if that is possible! But it is truly fulfilling the blessing he had in May of 2000 in the ICU in California!
Pal, age 81, also does some indexing and arbitration, but she has spent more time on research, and has been on 2 Family History Missions during the time he was an ordinance worker. She has put a lot of life stories of ancestors on her blog which she has done several times each week for 2 years, and has readers from all over the world. (grandmapalspocket.blogspot.com) She also has put many pioneer ancestor stories on Family Search, and added photos to her ancestors pages there. If anyone wants to learn how to do that, there are those at Family History Centers that can teach you, and it is all part of Family History work!
Together Wayne and Pal have written a 635 page book of their life stories, and a book of the letters they wrote for 14 months when he was in the Army in 1953 to 1955. They also have had printed a book with life stories of Wayne’s parents and ancestors, and a similar book about Pal’s ancestors. They have given copies to each of their 9 children and 29 grandchildren. They love Family History!
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