[Genealib] Discontinued Access to Ancestry.com Databases

[Joy Rich]

This was sent to FHC Directors today.

Joy

Joy Rich
Chapter Representative, New York Metro Chapter
Association of Professional Genealogists
http://www.apgen.org
http://www.apgen.org/chapters/newyork/index.html


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Worldwide Support
To: Family History Center Directors in English Language Areas
Date: March 16, 2007
Discontinued Access to Ancestry.com Databases

For many years, Ancestry.com has provided free access to patrons of family history centers
around the world.  Ancestry has informed the Church that as of April 1, 2007, it will
discontinue this free access to the full Ancestry.com service.

Free access through Ancestry.com to the following databases will continue:

1. Index and images for the 1880, 1900 and 1920 U.S. censuses
2. Full name indices for the British 1841-1891 censuses (England and Wales)
3. World War I draft cards indices as created and miscellaneous other databases

Free access is likely to be discontinued for the remainder of the Ancestry.com databases
including:

1. Index and images for the 1930 U.S. census
2. Index and images for the 1901 British census (England, Scotland, and Wales)

At this point, Ancestry.com is not offering an option for family history centers to
independently purchase commercial or library site licenses. Patrons, of course, may choose
to subscribe directly to Ancestry.com.

Free access to online databases is important and we therefore intend to add many new
databases to FamilySearch.org (the website of the Mormon Family History Library).   Much
of the data preparation will be accomplished through the online indexing program available
at FamilySearchIndexing.org. We encourage you to visit the website to learn more.

Volunteers have already begun indexing the 1900 U.S. census and other projects. Other
censuses and vital record collections will be indexed as soon as the 1900 U.S. census
project is completed. The more volunteers that participate, the sooner access can be
provided. Since access to databases on FamilySearch.org is free to all, we anticipate that
this will be of great interest to individuals around the world.  We are also exploring
opportunities to provide broader access to additional databases from other online service
providers.

Please inform patrons regarding our plans to provide access to records and invite them to
help by participating in the FamilySearch Indexing projects.  We will communicate as more
information becomes available. Thank you for all that you do on behalf of our patrons.

fhcsupport at support.familysearch.org