FamilySearch and Ancestry.com to Collaborate in Publishing New Images and Enhanced Indexes to the U.S. Censuses

A major announcement has been made today: FamilySearch (the genealogy arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and Ancestry.com (a division of The Generations Network) have announced a new partnership arrangement: The two organizations will work together on genealogy projects of mutual interest. Here is the official announcement written by the two organizations:

New 1900 Census Images Now Available on Ancestry.com; Volunteer Indexers Sought to Improve the 1920 U.S. Census Index

SALT LAKE CITY—Ancestry.com and FamilySearch, the two largest online family history resources, announced today they will exchange records and resources to make more historical records available online. The first project is a joint initiative to significantly enhance the online U.S. Federal Census Collection (1790 to 1930). The original census records are among the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

FamilySearch is digitally converting master microfilm copies of the original U.S. Federal Censuses from 1790 through 1930 and, under this agreement, will give these improved images to Ancestry.com. All census images and indexes will be available on Ancestry.com for subscribers. As projects are completed, images will be available for free in NARA reading rooms and FamilySearch’s 4,500 Family History Centers.

Ancestry.com, which currently offers indexes and images to the entire publicly available U.S. Federal Census Collection, will give FamilySearch copies of its existing census indexes. Through its online indexing system and community of volunteer indexers, FamilySearch is already indexing select censuses. FamilySearch will merge the Ancestry.com indexes with the new FamilySearch indexes to create enhanced census indexes, which will be added to both sites. Indexes to the enhanced censuses will be free on Ancestry.com for a limited time as they are completed. Indexes will also be available for free on FamilySearch.org.

Allen Weinstein, the Archivist of the United States, welcomed this agreement as a significant benefit for researchers. He remarked that, “Census records are among the most important documents the American people have to trace their genealogy and know their family history. Having two of our partners working together to enhance the indexes and images of these essential documents will enable an unprecedented level of access and understanding.”

The first census exchanged is the 1900 U.S. Census. FamilySearch completed a 1900 index in addition to Ancestry.com’s original. In the new index, FamilySearch added several new fields of searchable data, such as birth month and birth year, so individuals can search for ancestors more easily. The two indexes will be merged into an enhanced index, available on both sites. The new 1900 census images are now available on Ancestry.com. The enhanced 1900 index will be available for free for a limited time at Ancestry.com and ongoing at FamilySearch.org.

Ancestry.com will also provide FamilySearch its original 1920 U.S. Census index. Using the Ancestry.com index as a first transcription, FamilySearch will create a new second index with added fields and arbitrate any discrepancies between the two indexes. The 1920 project is currently in progress. Individuals interested in helping create the improved index can volunteer at FamilySearch.org. Once completed, the enhanced 1920 index will be available on both sites and will link back to images on Ancestry.com.

The 1850 through 1870 (partial) and 1880 and 1900 U.S. Censuses can be searched currently at FamilySearch.org; all publicly available U.S. Censuses are already available on Ancestry.com.

Tim Sullivan, president and CEO of The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com, said, “This collaboration represents a significant step forward in making family history research more accessible. The enhanced U.S. Federal Census Collection that will become available through this agreement is a gold mine for family history researchers, and we look forward to collaborating with FamilySearch in identifying other opportunities to help people discover their roots.”

“The U.S. Censuses are arguably the most important collection of U.S. genealogical records. FamilySearch is excited to see the complete, improved indexes of these collections freely available online over the next two years. And we look forward to working with Ancestry.com to enhance access to additional, significant collections in the future,” said Jay Verkler, Managing Director for FamilySearch.

Comments

[theKiwi]

This all sounds splendid, except that unless I'm missing something - see http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/07/is-google-makin.html perhaps - the images won't be available on http://familysearch.org - even though Family Search are providing the new images made from "master microfilm copies" to this joint venture?

So what is in it for Family Search - I guess they get an "instant" index, but it will of course include all of Ancestry's famous transcription errors until http://familysearchindexing.org/ volunteers work through it all to provide a more correct interpretation of it.

Or - am I missing something?

Roger

[Dick Eastman]

Quoting from the announcement: "As projects are completed, images will be available for free in NARA reading rooms and FamilySearch’s 4,500 Family History Centers."

I doubt if they will be physically hosted on www.FamilySearch.org. In numerous other announcements in the past year or so, FamilySearch has always maintained that their interest was in making sure that various images become available to everyone online, be they free or available for a modest fee. Some images will be hosted on FamilySearch.org but probably many more will be hosted on various partners' web sites. FamilySearch.org expects to have pointers to the images, regardless of the system that hosts them. This already exists with Footnote.com and with WouldVitalRecords.com. I assume the arrangement with Ancestry.com will operate in a similar manner.

- Dick Eastman

[Dennis]

I wonder how people that have donated their time for the indexing are going to feel about their work going to a commercial company or have to go to a FHC to access this work.

Also not all FHC have access to Footnote.com and WouldVitalRecords.com, so will the smaller FHC have access?

[Dick Eastman]

---> Also not all FHC have access to Footnote.com and WouldVitalRecords.com

All local Family History Centers can obtain free access to Footnote.com and (I think) to WorldVitalRecords.com. It is up to each local Family History Center whether or not they wish to take advantage of that free access.

- Dick Eastman

[Dennis]

I will contact them directly, but the link the church gave us I get a forbidden error message to Footnote.com and WouldVitalRecords.com.

Sorry if I was incorrect.

[Dick Eastman]

Ask the Family History Center staff to contact their support department in Salt Lake City. I bet it gets resolved within a few minutes.

[Dennis]

I am staff, have contacted support (they were unable to fix it) and was later told there was a limited number of FHC that can have access to the sites on that webpage. But we are getting off topic ;-)

[Sharon]

I'm still riding this "viewing" horse--with all the technology available, can't Ancestry (and all others)please put their PDF view of records in a continuous scroll format? If they really want to make it easier to access records- with continuous up and down scrolling we could look at all pages of a census record without having to click and wait for pages to load. As these companies- who I gladly pay for access- do these kinds of projects- how hard would it be to bring new technology to it.

[Arlene Miles]

I think the LDS in SLC and Acestry.com should make sure they give this project all they can to get the correct information, in easy to search for format, and printable in many forms. After all these are public records and once a researcher finds how easy it is to locate good information, they will be looking for additional information from the best providers.
Do it right, people want good reliable information with not a lot of work and these two organizations should be able to accomplish this hands down.

[Pat]

As a heavy user of ancestry.com's census records and as someone who has participated in FamilySearch's indexing program, I applaud this move. Having Family Search in any way involved in indexing and/or re-indexing ancestry's database can only be a positive move. I would say that in AT LEAST 50% of the cases where I find a relevant record on ancestry.com (after long and hard "creative" searching), I have submitted a correction, in the vast majority of cases for a transcription error (rather than an incorrect original). It is obvious that, in addition to using indexers who have no feel whatsoever for the English language, there is or has been no system of dual-indexing with differences resolved by a 3d party, which is the system used by Family Search.
When ancestry recently debuted its "new and improved" home page, which of course is much slower to load, and asked for feedback, I gently suggested that they should stop messing around with cosmetics and spend their time and money on improving their abysmal indexing.

[Charles worth]

All well and good, but all the HigherCost places on the web are too EXPENSIVE for me, and I do not live within 100 Miles of a Family Search Centers(aka Morman)And the one I am closest to is just a hair bigger then my Bathroom. Unless they expanded it, that is.
And I have no idea where a NARA building is.

[Nancy M.]

I am so very, very disappointed by this announcement. FamilySearch has been going great guns putting new information on their search and lab sites -- indexes AND views of original records - and all for free, and at home, too. It seemed like great progress. Now it's back to the FHC to view the images -- regress. I hope the collaboration between FamilySearch and Ancestry.com stops with census images. Surely someone from FamilySearch is reading all these blogs and responses to newsletters. Please, please keep as many indexes and images as possible free from home! The Church has all these indexers working from home, let us stay at home to view the images.

Nancy M.

[Todd Bredin]

What happens to Heritage Quest census info access, free at (my) local libraries.
Todd

[Dick Eastman]

---> What happens to Heritage Quest census info access, free at (my) local libraries.

Nothing.

HeritageQuest is not affected by this announcement. There will be no change.

- Dick Eastman

[Sheri]

Such a disappointment to see that FamilySearch has decided to go down the "limit the access to records from home" route. I can't afford Ancestry and am too far away from a history center to use it effectively. Another great resource gone.

[Dick Eastman]

Maybe I am missing something, but can you explain "Another great resource gone?"

Up until recently, FamilySearch had planned to place indexes online free of charge but had no plan to place images online.

The new agreement states that FamilySearch will now place (larger and expanded) indexes online free of charge but has no plan to place images online

What changed?

The agreement also describes images that will be made available on Ancestry.com (and a number of other web sites) but those images were never planned to be placed on FamilySearch. Under the new announcement, they still will not be on FamilySearch.

Under the new agreement, Ancestry.com gets images and FamilySearch gets larger indexes but nothing is taken away from either site. Whatever you used to get free of charge today on FamilySearch will still be available free of charge in the future on FamilySearch, only there will be more of it (larger indexes available free of charge).

- Dick Eastman

[Zinnchick]

Thank you, Dick for that last comment! I was absolutely amazed at how such a relatively simple announcement got so misread, so fast. And to those who were stressing over Footnote and WorldVitalRecords, they weren't even mentioned in the announcement. This is strictly between Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org. I'm a volunteer indexer as well, and this sounds *great* to me. Better, more complete indexes will be on Familysearch.org for free, and if I want to see the images on Ancestry or Familysearch, and they're NOT some of the ones available free on Familysearch, I know where I can find them. But, what's to keep me from writing down the info from the enhanced (free) index on Familysearch, and looking up the image on HeritageQuest, which I have at home through my local library??? Let's think logically -- and read better!