Issue 27 & 28
The genealogy projects of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are continually expanding, and one aspect of that expansion is going on here in St. George. Sitting inconspicuously, right across the street from the northwest corner of the St. George LDS Temple, is the St. George Records Operation Center (ROC). Over the last couple of years, the brick house on the corner, donated by the Olsen/Browning family for Family History work, has undergone transformation into a computerized work center with 70 computer stations! The St. George ROC is the largest in the world.
Inside this facility, missionaries examine millions of digital records each year, preparing records to go out to the many thousands of volunteers working in their own homes to make the information available to those who are seeking to find their ancestors. You have probably heard of “Indexing” and may have done some yourself. What it means is that the data in each record is typed into a data base and eventually published so that the record can be found by typing in a name or other “indexed” information.
Before these records can be indexed, the digital images must be prepared for the indexers. That’s where the ROC missionaries come in. They examine records from many sources, make sure they have usable genealogical data, and organize them into batches for indexing.
Some of these images come from the microfilms stored in the granite mountain vaults in Salt Lake City’s canyons. Over the past few years, Family Search has been gradually converting the microfilms to digital images so they can be indexed. There are also missionary camera teams out on location throughout the world, continually adding new filmed records. Another source of information is a digitized collection of millions of newspapers. ROC missionaries examine each page, identifying any article that mentions a birth, death, or marriage.
There are other special projects assigned to the ROCs by the Church as needed (indexing the Freedmen records, indexing records with sensitive information or time deadlines, cataloging historical letters and other records of the founding fathers). The ROC missionaries also review the entries after indexing and prior to final publication.
Previously, this work was all done by Family Search missionaries and staff in Salt Lake. It was becoming an overwhelming volume of work. Beginning in 2012, satellite centers were created to accomplish these tasks. There are now several ROCs located in Utah, as well as Idaho, Arizona, and Guatemala.
The ROC has several different kinds of missionaries—full-time missionary couples, young Church service missionaries, and senior Church Service missionaries. More missionaries are needed. If you are looking for a way to serve, this could be your answer. A church service mission allows you to live at home and requires a commitment of a minimum of 16 hours a week. The ROC is open from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM Monday through Thursday and from 7:00 AM to 12:00 PM on Fridays. Your schedule would be within those hours. Knowledge of computers and family history is helpful, but not required. People that have never touched a computer before are being trained to do the work. The ROC is a great social environment and Snowbirds can serve too (a special opportunity available only in St. George).
If you are interested in serving at the ROC, stop by and visit or contact:
Elder or Sister McAra at 435-652-5917.
Here are a couple of YouTube videos about the process of bringing the records out of the vaults/
Granite Mountain Records Vault, Part 1
Granite Mountain Records Vault, Part 2
For more information, contact Shanna Jones shannasjones@msn.com