Dr. Scott Barton has been an obstetrician for over 25 years. Doctors work notoriously long hours, and doctors who deliver babies never have much time off. In Dr. Barton’s words, a 90-hour work week is a normal week in his profession. He recently changed it up a bit. Currently, he is practicing medicine part-time and working with an insurance company part-time, which has brought his work week down to 60 hours a week. I guess you could say he is a busy man. It makes me wonder, how can someone who works such long hours find time to index?
Scott has always been a fan of family history. He is also very driven and enjoys setting goals for himself. Dr. Barton tried indexing back in 2007, and he really liked it. I asked him what it was that made him start indexing and why he continues to index. Scott said, “It gives me a good feeling to accomplish this task of indexing. I get the feeling that I am paying back people who have done much through research and indexing. What they have done has made the search for my ancestors so much easier. I need to give back.”
Dr. Barton has indexed as many as 30,000 names in a month and 2,500 names in a day. This is quite an accomplishment and a huge payback. His personal goal is to index 1,000,000 names in his lifetime. He will probably accomplish that goal because he has already reached over 680,000 names.
What is Dr. Barton’s secret? This is a busy man with a busy job and a family. Dr. Barton says it is simple, and here’s how he does it. “Every day I have moments of free time. We all do. Mine come in-between patients or during those brief moments when I am not busy doing something specific. I turn to my computer, and I use every free moment I have. When I became more proficient at indexing, I soon found it became rather easy to keep up with it. It is surprising how many empty minutes in a day that one can fill. It leaves me feeling like I am doing something of true value. Surprisingly, once you commit to it, it really doesn’t take as much time as one might think.”
Dr. Barton’s has set himself a high standard for indexing. His wife likes to tease him that he is spending more time with the dead than with his own family. He feels he has been blessed from his service, loves what he is doing, and is more than willing to help others in their attempts to do the same.
How do you and your stake members find time to index? What is your indexing routine? Leave a comment below or send us an email at fsindexing@familysearch.org.– Article by Elder Gary Stevens
