FamilySearch is an organization funded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). The organization recently expanded their efforts at making more genealogy records available to the public. One new project that raised a few eyebrows is the indexing of the 1900 U.S. census.
Two companies have already indexed the 1900 census: HeritageQuest Online and FamilySearch. In fact, probably 80% of all Americans already have free access to these records via HeritageQuest Online. (See http://eogen.com/HeritageQuestOnline for a list of many libraries that offer free in-home access to HeritageQuest Online.) The question has been asked: "Why did FamilySearch decide to create a THIRD index of this census?"
A recent article in the Ancestry Insider blog quotes Paul Nauta, manager of public affairs for FamilySearch. The reasons are interesting and include some things I would not have realized.
You can read the article at http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com/2007/09/why-1900-census.html.
While there, take a look at some of the other articles on the Ancestry Insider blog. It makes for interesting reading.
