by Cathy Gilmore | Dec 28, 2016 | RootsTech 2016
If you’ve followed Kindex for very long, you’ll know that we frequently post about our Grandma Dorothy Smith Clark. Today I want to share with you why her story is so important to us.
As a child, I asked Grandma Clark what she would like for her birthday. “Tell me a story,” she answered. This voice speaks to me still. As a young teenager she encouraged me to create and write. A visit with her hardly went by without her suggesting, “Write me a poem.” That encouragement speaks to me still. Today, when I read her letters and diaries, I see her notes in the margins revealing instructions for a personal history—a project she never completed before passing away. Those notes speak to me still.
A marked-up page from Dorothy’s life history.
When my cousin Kimball and I decided to launch Kindex, our aim was to create a solution for the enormous body of work our grandma left behind. While it was impossible for Dorothy to envision the type of indexing tool we are building today, I like to think she had a sense of what was to come. She had the gift of foresight, the ability to anticipate and address needs. In a sense, building Kindex will finish the work she started, while also helping us tell her story.
And what is her story? I’ll share just a part. While still a young mother, Dorothy completed her Book of Remembrance. A work of art in its own right, its pages reveal her deep sense of ancestral belonging, records of her parents’ and grandparents’ spiritual gifts, and a recognition of her own divine purpose and talents. As Dorothy developed her own spiritual gifts, her ability to discern the needs of others and act in faith became a catalyst for ministering to others, notwithstanding the fear and shyness she often felt. To the question posed to the Savior, “Who is my neighbor?” Dorothy could answer: the plumber, the piano tuner, the refugee, or the outcast—anyone in her path in need of help.
A watercolored page from the Dorothy Smith Clark Book of Remembrance
Dorothy’s 1964 poster sketch titled “We Believe in Sharing” affirmed the scope of her desires: to give all she had—her talents, testimony, labor, food, and possessions, bringing “more happiness, enrich[ing] the world, sharing all that has come to us as a church and as individual members.”
[1] Often overcome with social anxiety or limited by her heath, Dorothy preferred personal visits to projects, created art to share the gospel, and wrote hundreds of inspired letters that today stand as a witness to bear one another’s burdens. Without prejudice or judgment, her nurturing influence reached beyond her own nine children when she became a foster mother to two Navajo children and a personal advocate for many Southeast Asian refugees who affectionately called her “Mother Clark”.
Dorothy Clark with husband Ellsworth, foster son Cody Black, and Cody’s family.
While Dorothy’s art was never exhibited, her painting of Paul Wildhaber’s “The Armor of Righteousness” was the centerpiece of her home. Unlike others who traditionally depicted male religious figures, 20-year-old Dorothy changed the painting’s subject from hero to heroine, thus broadening the view of those who are “armed in righteousness”. From her childhood fairy gifts to the ministering of the needful and forgotten, her visionary example of what a woman can do endures through her depiction of this righteous and strong heroine.
Dorothy Smith in Paul Wildhaber’s studio.
Dorothy Smith’s completed “Armor of Righteousness”
Dorothy continued her talent of creating and sharing family histories well into the last years of her life. In 1980 she participated in the World Conference of Records in a booth of her own design.
Dorothy at the World Conference of Records in 1980
As I think about her life, I see a patterns emerging as her children, grandchildren, and beyond strive to finish what she started. Kindex is just a small part of a larger effort to emulate the kind of woman she was. Sometimes, when I feel overwhelmed at the pressures of launching a startup while still raising a young family, I look at the binders and boxes of her records and think, “Soon, we’ll know your story. Not long yet.”
Dorothy and Ellsworth in New Zealand, 1974
[i] Dorothy Smith, Sketches. “We Believe in Sharing”, 1964
by Cathy Gilmore | Aug 10, 2016 | Features, Resources
Do you have boxes of papers, letters, and journals and don’t know where to start? Do you want to index (transcribe and tag) your family records but the process of scanning everything seems overwhelming? Kindex offers many services that help families organize, digitize and archive their family records.
Gather Services
- Record organization. Organize and prioritize your letters, journals, photos, and papers in preparation for scanning.
- Scanning. Scan your letters, journals, diaries, papers, ephemera, photos, slides and negatives.
- Audio & video digitization. Convert audio and video formats to digital.
Physical and Digital Record Preservation
- Digital Family File Organization and backup. Organize and copy digitized records on solid state external drives and USB drives.
- Online Storage and Collaboration. Move your family records to a Kindex Family page where digital records can be gathered, indexed, and shared with your family.
- Physical Record Archival. Archive your letters, photos, journals, papers, ephemera, and other records in archive quality containers.
Family Record Gathering Events
- Family Reunions
- “Empty Nester” Nights
- Custom on-site record scanning
Pricing
Pricing is available at hourly or a-la-carte rates. Please call for a free quote or consultation.
Kimball Clark: 801-458-0282
Cathy Gilmore: 801-513-0585
by Cathy Gilmore | Jun 14, 2016 | RootsTech 2016, Software
Considering that Kindex has been in business less than a year, it is easy sometimes to get impatient with progress—especially when you are developing software. But Kimball and I have never lost sight of our goal: to build software that will enable individuals, families, and groups to rescue their primary sources. This rescue encompasses three steps:
- Gather
Gather, organizing, and digitizing primary sources (journals, letters, diaries, photos, audio, video, and heirlooms). Kindex is busy gathering and digitizing for numerous individuals and families.
- Index
Transcribe, tag, and review family records. This is where our software comes in. We are working hard to release MyKindex, the free, beta version of Kindex web software. Following that release will be KindexFamily and KindexArchive. These two account types will enable groups to manage transcription and tagging of their digitized records, as well as offer transcription crowdsourcing of their archive records.
- Share
With Kindex, sharing family records happens on many levels, including: printing source records and transcriptions, searching archive transcriptions, and using digitized records as sources in research and genealogy.
This summer will be a busy one for us. We are providing scanning and indexing services on-site at family reunions, digitizing several family archives, starting a new phase of software development, and ramping up fundraising efforts with backers and investors.
We appreciate your patience and support as we move forward. They say the first year in business is the hardest, and we can attest that this is true. But we are determined to be successful, as we believe to the core in our vision: to gather what is scattered, reveal what is hidden and find what is lost.
by Cathy Gilmore | Apr 26, 2016 | Letters
To commemorate Dorothy Smith Clark’s birthday on 26 April 1911, here is a transcription of a letter to her fiancé Ellsworth M. Clark. This letter shows her playful personality and hints at the number of suitors Dorothy had. Letter from the Dorothy Smith Clark Archive. -CG
947 Crandall Ave
S.L.C. Utah
April 24/34
Darling,
It seems like I’ll never get a decent-sized letter off to you unless I take a special vacation for the purpose. It’s always a rush & a bang & I never have time to think what I write.
When that picture of you from arr’d yesterday it was so natural of you that it seemed you were right here by me again & has seemed so ever since.
At times it seems ages since you left & all our past looks more like a fairy tale & I wonder if you actually are real & alive. Then comes a picture which proves the fact that you are, and my dreams of you commence to flourish & brighten.
Just last night you were with me and I felt like a newly-crowned princess – if a princess could possibly feel so grand.
(more…)
by Cathy Gilmore | Feb 5, 2016 | Features, Resources, RootsTech 2016, Software
Update 22 February 2016:
At this stage our software has limited functionality, but we are still on schedule for a Beta test launch the beginning of March. Among other things, you will see more options for uploading records, increased functionality with the transcription and tagging tools, as well as more robust sharing features. If you are interested in beta testing, please contact us at sales @ kindex dot org.
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Kindex Beta just became available on 3 February 2016 for any users to try it out. Here are some important FAQs that will provide our current status and future functionality.
How do I create an account?
For Beta, we are requiring a FamilySearch login. For most (but not all) account types, this will remain a requirement so Kindex and FamilySearch may support one another in indexing Memories and ensuring that there is little or no name duplication in the Kindex Archive. Indexing accounts that are custom or research-orientated will not necessarily require a FamilySearch login.
I pressed the “Try It Out” button and all I see are a bunch of random files.
The “Try it Out” feature is there to demonstrate the Memory import capability and is not associated with your user account.
Can I upload records directly to Kindex?
For this Beta release, records you wish to index must already be added to FamilySearch Memories. To bring those records into Kindex, add the FamilySearch person ID linked to those Memories under the Add person section on the left of the Gather Screen.
When can I add Kindex Records as FamilySearch Memories?
When direct Kindex record uploads become available, the ability to save these records as FamilySearch Memories will follow soon after.
My FamilySearch Memories are all in the same location.
We are currently trying to ensure that record types are placed in the appropriate category in the Gather screen. For example, Family Search Memories that are photos should go directly to the Kindex Photos area. Look for that functionality to improve.
Can I tag people, places and events?
Our tagging feature will become available in the coming days and weeks.
I have records that I want to index, but I don’t want them to be available to the public.
Kindex will offer two types of privacy tools. First, the document contributer designates a record public or private a the document upload. We will also have a redaction tool for certain words or pages you wish to remain private. For example, you may have a journal that contains sensitive information. You may make that journal private and redact the sensitive information during indexing. Then, if you wish you may change the privacy setting to public.
My indexing screen looks the same for photos, letters, or other document types.
In the coming days and weeks, we will add modals that will assign specific document types for Kindex records. These document types will determine what fields are available on the indexing screen.
When will Kindex Family accounts be available?
Subscription KindexFamily and MyFamily accounts will be ready in March. MyKindex accounts will be free during Kindex Beta.
I want to become a Kindex Beta tester. What do I do?
That’s fantastic! Following RootsTech 2016, we will contact all Beta Testers with instructions.
When will your Community Indexing page be available?
We love our volunteer indexers! Kindex will provide records to the indexing community that volunteers may index and review. Also, we are exploring “indexing credits” whereby community indexers may receive free or discounted Kindex subscriptions by indexing our public records.
How will I know Kindex will be around in five years? I don’t want to lose all my work.
Kindex is solidly supported, backed, and funded. We are also FamilySearch Certified. Part of this means that your source records will be saved and backed up to the FamilySearch Memory archive. You also own all of your indexed content that you will be able to download in various formats such as HTML, text, and print.
I’m a researcher, historian, business historian or museum owner. Can we use Kindex for non-family records?
Yes! Kindex is the idea tool for for transcribing and tagging any primary source documents or records in either a public or private archive.
