DIY History

I love the name of this very cool project my step-mom told me about - DIY History. It's a project out of the University of Iowa transcribing cookbooks, diaries, and letters. Anyone can participate. You don't have to have a history degree or be affiliated with the university either. It's a fun and easy way to be involved with history even if you don't have a lot of time and especially if you're at home a lot like me or have a lot of free time with access to the internet. Give it a try! They still need lots of help!

Another way to be involved with history is another very important project - indexing. Indexing is where thousands of volunteers transcribe documents such as census records, immigration records, military records, etc. to be free and searchable online. Documents like these are especially used by those doing genealogy research about their ancestors. Making them available online makes it a whole lot easier for those doing the searching and you can help! I just found out that they now have an indexing app for your mobile device!

Being involved in projects like these and doing my own genealogy research helps me feel like I'm keeping a finger on the pulse of the history community even if I can't volunteer or work in museums right now. Being at home with my kids is really important at this point in our lives, but that doesn't mean I can't help volunteer in my beloved history community!