Earlier this year, a family historian named Carol was trying to piece together the Ohio branches of her family tree. “They were shattered by death, marriage, remarriage, name changes, and lack of records,” she said. “Using the records indexed through FamilySearch [an organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], I was able to…solve an important mystery. It was such a satisfying moment.”

Today that satisfaction is experienced over and over by millions of people who are able to connect with their ancestors thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers known as FamilySearch indexers.