Is it worth it to index civil records that will eventually be transcribed by FamilySearch?

[GenealogyFan77]

I know it will be worth it in the short-run to me, since I already spend enough time in the records in the towns I'm transcribing, and have plans on a large project to connect everyone through blood or marriage, but as far as in the grand scheme of things, will my efforts eventually be useless since someone else will end up duplicating them?

I'm curious to hear the experiences of those who have already contributed to such a project of their own. I know that church records are a whole different ball game since it doesn't seem like there are any active projects ongoing that have even started in Italy, but I'm excluding those from the scope of what this post is about.

[rlw254]

I've done two small towns now (modern population ~2000) and in my opinion it is worth it. The main reason being that you will likely record much more data than familysearch transcribers will. From what I have seen, a typical indexed record there will include a date, place, parents' names, and maybe spouse. If you're doing it yourself you can include other valuable information such as informants, birth/marriage/death notes from the margins, whether or not a parent or spouse was alive at the time of the record, etc. You can also standardize names and make your own judgements on handwriting to facilitate grouping later.

Be aware it is quite time consuming.