New Ancestry.com and ProQuest.com Partnership

The online newsgroups have been buzzing all week, and on Friday it became official: one of the strongest rivalries in the genealogy business world has been between ProQuest and MyFamily.com, operators of Ancestry.com, but now the two are becoming business partners.

ProQuest is a major supplier of high-quality census images and digitized copies of thousands of genealogy books. The same company also provides the online version of the powerful PERSI genealogy database. ProQuest traditionally has sold services only to libraries. To access ProQuest's online databases of U.S. Census records, digitized books, and the PERSI database, most genealogists had to visit a library that paid two thousand dollars per year or more to subscribe to the service. A few libraries offer in-home access to ProQuest as well.

Ancestry.com has been offering a competitive service to libraries, called Ancestry Plus, which really was based upon the company reselling the services of Thomson Gale, one of ProQuest's biggest competitors. That partnership apparently soured in recent months. Ancestry.com is now dropping the Ancestry Plus product.

Reportedly, Ancestry.com and ProQuest now have signed a two-way agreement: ProQuest will market the Ancestry online products to the library market under a service named Ancestry Library Edition. In return, ProQuest will supply 20,000+ genealogy and local history books to Ancestry.com's genealogy customers. How Ancestry.com will price and position these new online books has not yet been announced.

It is interesting that these two companies are the only ones who supply all or most all of U.S. Census records online. Both have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in creating competitive online databases of census records. It is also interesting that ProQuest's census images are generally more readable than Ancestry.com's images of the same records. I had hoped that Ancestry.com would also resell ProQuests's census images; however, the announcement makes no mention of that, and I suspect that each will continue to sell its own version of census records separately.

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Comments

[Dick Eastman]

Here is the official announcement of what ProQuest will be offering to libraries:

ProQuest Announces Exclusive Distribution of Ancestry Library Edition for Library Market

New digital genealogy resource from MyFamily.com will replace Ancestry Plus

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - June 25, 2004 - ProQuest Information and Learning announces exclusive rights to distribute a new product, Ancestry Library Edition, from MyFamily.com, Inc., in the library market. The new agreement gives ProQuest the two premier genealogy resources: HeritageQuest Online (TM), ProQuest's popular library genealogy and family history database, and Ancestry Library Edition, an enhanced edition of MyFamily.com's popular consumer genealogy database, Ancestry.com. Ancestry Library Edition will replace the Ancestry Plus database for current subscribers. ProQuest Information and Learning, a unit of ProQuest Company (NYSE:PQE), creates and publishes databases to libraries and educational institutions worldwide.

MyFamily.com, based in Provo, Utah, publishes electronic and print resources for family historians. Key collections in Ancestry Library Edition include:

- Immigration Collection: New York Passenger Lists, San Francisco Passenger Lists, and New York Petitions for Naturalization

- US Data Collection including US Birth, Marriage and Death Collection, World War I Draft Registration Cards, and Social Security Death Index

- US Census Collection including US Census 1790-1930 images and indexes

- UK and Ireland Collection including England and Wales Census Images and Indexes, England and Wales Civil Registration Index 1837-present, and England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales Parish and probate record 1500s-1837

"The resources in Ancestry Library Edition are an excellent complement to HeritageQuest Online. By providing both databases to libraries, we're able to meet more fully libraries' needs for genealogical, demographic, and historical research. The agreement is a great fit for customers in this rapidly growing research area, for both hobbyists and professionals. Users will gain rich sources of content and search tools for illuminating their ancestry," said Rod Gauvin, ProQuest senior vice president, marketing and publishing.

ProQuest will continue to distribute Heritage Quest and all its component data sets of the US Census, the PERiodical Source Index (PERSI) and Genealogical and Local History Collection (G&LH). Freedman's Bank Records and the Revolutionary War Pension Records are also slated to be added to HeritageQuest Online.

Information about subscriptions to Ancestry Library Edition will be forthcoming. Free trials of HeritageQuest Online are available. Libraries may receive more information by contacting their account representative at 1-800-521-0600, ext 3183 or 3452 (outside the U.S., call +44-1-223-215-512) or pqsales@il.proquest.com. Editors may call 1-800-521-0600, ext 6489 or e-mail pr@il.proquest.com.

[Mike Ransom]

I certainly agree that HQ's [.gif?] images are generally better than Ancestry's, much quicker to load, and easier to use/save/send. The search interface is marginal, so I frequently have to use Ancestry to do soundex, exact age, or other quirky searches. Then I switch to HQ and look at the image. But, Ancestry hasn't indexed all their images [e.g. 1910, 1900], so you need HQ if you are working in that era. On the other hand, HQ has "head only" indexing on some censuses, so you need Ancestry for "every name". Thery both have about the same error rate on place names [mis-spellings or just plain wrong or missing]. HQ lets you search on age ranges by decade, while Ancestry lets you choose only one age/year. My library allows home connection to HQ, so I hope this just expands my options, and perhaps reduces my Ancestry bill. Local Genealogy societies should consider making this available through their library . . .

[Don Range]

In my experience Ancestry's census images are usually more legible than those on HQ. I use both often, and I frequently go to Ancestry to read an image that was not quite readable on HQ. Only rarely have I been able to improve readability by going to HQ for a "second opinion". Of course, it's nice to have both available for hard to read cases, as well for the different indexing and searching features mentioned by Mike.

[Roger Moffat]

To me Heritage Quest's census images win hands down - simply because it doesn't rely on MrSid plug in which doesn't work, or is quirky at best on Macintosh computers.

Bravo to HQ for realising that you can deliver a great product without the need to make it more complex than it needs to be by using a plug in that doesn't work for anyone not using Redmond's malware.

Oh, and Heritage Quest is avialable to me in my home courtesy of our local library system and our library card number.

[Jeannette Kupec]

I subscribe to HQ through a library subscription that I enjoy very much. I utilize the census records with them as I can use my NETSCAPE browser, and the benefit of reading or downloading books is fabulous.

I also subscribe to Ancestry for their census records but I get really upset because as of late you can only pan using the Internet Explorer browser that I definitely do not like. The only reason I have continued to stay with Ancestry for their census is because they have a few years HQ does not, as well as being able to check the readability of each.

[Dana Durkee]

I also have access to both packages. They both have some advantage; being able to zoom in is something I miss with HQ, while being able to see the whole page at once is something I miss with Ancestry. The HQ images load vastly faster (Ancestry's site just feels more and more sluggish every month). I think Ancestry digitized with a much higher contrast setting; when the HQ images are difficult to read, it's often because the image is too faint to make out. However, I think the HQ images are sharper overall; sometimes the Ancestry images are a tad fuzzy. And HQ gets points for having the negative image available. I also prefer HQ's search results; being able to view a whole state and choosing your sort option is much, much more useful when hunting down those elusive ancestors.

On that note, I'd very much like to know what happened to Ancestry's 1910 census images. I could swear the index had been linked to the images; and now, suddenly, gone? Seems their business model these days is Charge More, Offer Less.

I've been using Ancestry since they first went online (and it was free back then!), and sorry to say, but they certainly have not taken to heart the idea that ~ quantity does not equal quality ~. It's vexing, since they certainly must have the cash to be the Google of genealogy -- if they only wanted to.

[Steve Gauss]

I too have access to both - HQ through my local library and ancestry that I pay for (available in the library but only in the branch). Ancestry is adding everyname indexes which is incredibly useful - they have 1950, 60, 70 , 80, and 1930 as everyname. HQ has ONLY head of household. The only index ancestry does not have is 1900 head of household. So I think I am getting good value for money with ancestry (of course that is true for HQ, too, since I get it free!). I just wish ancestry would respond to questions/complaints with an actual answer.

[Sandra Quinn]

I also use both HQ and Ancestry. What I really love about HQ is that you can do creative researching. If you have a last name and not a first or first without the last and know the area the person lived in you can usually find the name you are researching quickly! I get lots of census lookup requests and rarely do I get enough info to do a good job, but with HQ you have the flexibility to try many ideas and I have been amazed at the results. Add that to the info you can find on ancestry and at the LDS website, well, I rarely have to leave home to help people with their ancestor research.

Sandy

[K Leigh Reynolds]

Here is a little insight for you who are using Ancestry.com and are wondering why prices have risen recently. They are trying to make up for the time and loss of money they allowed the LDS Family History libraries to use their site for free at the LDS Family History libraries. Ancestry and the LDS church had an agreement as long as Ancestry was formatting most everything the LDS church has for genealogical research to digital format. When a new research aid comes into play through Ancestry it was most likely (95% or more of the documents) came from the LDS Church. Yet the LDS church allows everyone to use their research aids (over billions of records and names) for free or at the most for less than $5.00 to rent for 3 weeks to indefinite time frame at a nearby LDS family history library. Ancestry has limited the LDS family history libraries to a handful titles to research from, while still copying and formatting research aids from the LDS granite vaults to digital format. Seems a little one sided but that’s the just of it. One can decide to use Ancestry.com or just go back to old research way of going to the nearest LDS family history library and rent the research aids for 100% less and save themselves quite a bit of money. The nice thing you can use your local library card to access HQ with your library card and a pin and its all free.