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The new software had me a little frazzled. As I stared at my computer screen, I realized this is what happens when you marry an engineer.

My husband hasn't read an instruction manual since 1977. "Forget the instructions; I can assemble this bicycle, no problem." And, amazingly, he can.

So, when I downloaded the FamilySearch Indexing software to my computer, following his example, I skipped the tutorials and plunged right into my first batch of records to index. That was a mistake. Fortunately, it was a fixable mistake.

A little backtracking through the tutorials answered my questions and set me on the right indexing path.

Just what is FamilySearch Indexing? It's a massive volunteer project to index key genealogical records and upload the indexes to the Internet so that researchers around the world can access the indexes for free.

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The church maintains the largest collection of genealogical records in the world.

Indexing projects have been under way for a few years now, but this year there's been a major effort to recruit volunteers. More than 100,000 volunteers have already signed on to help and they're grinding through a million ancestral names a day.

Volunteers sign up online at familysearchindexing.org. Then, they download the indexing software to their home computers. Then volunteers can choose what records they would like to index.

Most of the indexing projects right now are for census records, although there are a few vital records indexing projects as well.

I chose the 1850 New Mexico census for my first batch of records. I received one page of records to index. I had to type in the first and last names of everyone enumerated on that page, along with a few other details such as age and birthplace.

Brushing up on your skills at deciphering old handwriting is a side benefit of indexing census records. Fortunately, the software has a database of names to help you deduce just what letters those curlicues, swirls and loops really are.

It took me less than 30 minutes to index a page of census records. Once you download a batch of records to your computer, you need to complete it within seven days or the software will snatch it back from you and hand it off to someone else.

You also have an out if you receive a batch that looks just too difficult to read or if you change your mind. You simply click on the "Return Batch" button and it disappears from your computer.

Every batch is sent to two volunteers to index. So, if I type a man's name as Crecencio and the other volunteer types Crecinco the system sends up a red flag on that batch. It's then sent to a third volunteer to make sense of spelling, handwriting and typing snafus.

If you're interested in volunteering, be sure to read the tutorials first and avoid the minor frustrations I experienced. Also, each set of records has specific indexing instructions; so read those over before you dive into a batch.

A recently added project is the 1930 Mexican census. FamilySearch is recruiting 10,000 bilingual volunteers to help index Mexican and other Latin American records.