Does anyone know about how much of the online sources are indexed yet? I mean sometimes I notice a sentence saying that a resource is not searchable but is available to browse which of course would take time, maybe lots of it.

Family search or Ancestry.com or other online resources.

I don't think I've ever browsed through an online source for a treasure of information not found elsewhere, but maybe I'm not looking hard enough?

jhan - 2020-01-14 12:49:00

I don't know the proportions because there are a lot of indexing projects going on (and being outsourced to India!), but records these days that are online fall into 3 categories:
- indexed with image linked
- transcribed/indexed but not linked to an image (sometimes on 2 different sites)
- not indexed but image available
Sometimes, like with the NZ Probate records, they're partially the second as they work on the first!

Quite often, especially with parish records, if it's not indexed on the site with the images, it's transcribed on another one which makes the browsing easier. But I've often found browsing records can find things the index can't, mainly due to bad transcription/really bad handwriting, but also due to really variable spelling of names, including variations I hadn't thought of! It also gives you a feel for the names in the parish, so when you find a marriage you have some idea if the bride is from that area or somewhere else.

FamilySearch with their huge digitisation project have a lot of resources which aren't indexed (and mostly available only in their affiliate libraries). They have lots of records which aren't BDM can be very useful! Have a look around their catalog. And they're free!

But yes, it can be time consuming and very frustrating, but if you don't, you might be missing something.

rednicnz - 2020-01-14 18:42:00

I've browsed unindexed sources when there is nothing else available or I just want more info about someone that is worth the extra effort. It's not usually necessary to search the entire collection to find specific records, just have an idea of date or name of location or whatever and make best guesses which page to jump to next.

morticia - 2020-01-14 18:56:00