Ancestry.com Blog » Suzanne Bonner

Join Us in a Webinar on the World Archives Project, Our New Community Indexing Program

Suzanne Bonner — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:48:04 +0000

On Thursday, Oct. 23^rd, at 8 pm EDT, Ancestry.com will be sponsoring a webinar on its new World Archives Project. Learn more about Ancestry.com’s new community indexing program that gives people around the world the opportunity to save historical records important to them. Register for the webinar here.

Tim Sullivan Talks About the World Archives Project with DearMYRTLE

Suzanne Bonner — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:00:23 +0000

Ancestry.com CEO Tim Sullivan explains the new Ancestry.com World Archives Project. In this podcast, Tim discusses how the project works and the many benefits available to individuals and societies that choose to get involved.

Listen to the podcast on DearMYRTLE’s website here. (The segment with Tim begins 37 minutes into the podcast.)

Ancestry.com Announces the World Archives Project

Suzanne Bonner — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:23:53 +0000

Ancestry.com today launched the World Archives Project, a global public indexing initiative designed to give individuals everywhere the opportunity to help preserve historical records. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) is the first organization to partner with Ancestry.com during this beta phase of this new venture, enlisting genealogists and family history enthusiasts to help test the software and prepare it for a more public release.

Now in public beta, the World Archives Project allows individuals to transcribe information from images of original historical records and to create indexes that will remain accessible for free on Ancestry.com and on Ancestry’s localized sites in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, and Italy. Active contributors will soon be able to access all original images that are part of the World Archives Project. Organizations can also partner with the World Archives Project and sponsor indexing projects. Ancestry.com will donate a digital copy of the sponsored index and images back to partnering organizations.

Already, several thousand individuals have joined the World Archives Project private beta, indexing Wisconsin Mortality Schedules and Nebraska State Censuses.

For more information about the World Archives Project or to get involved, visit www.ancestry.com/worldarchivesproject.

Learn About FTM 2009 in DearMYRTLE’s Podcast

Suzanne Bonner — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:18:02 +0000

Duff Wilson, Product Manager for Family Tree Maker, talks about FTM 2009 in this week’s edition of DearMYRTLE’s Family History Hour genealogy podcast.

Duff explains some of the exciting new features in this year’s version of FTM and when the software will be available.

You can listen to the podcast on DearMYRTLE’s website here. (The segment with Duff begins 35 minutes into the podcast.)

Ancestry.com World Archives Project in Private Beta

Suzanne Bonner — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:30:24 +0000

We have recently released a beta version of our new public indexing initiative that we are VERY excited about! So far we have several people indexing in the new tool and giving us great feedback. We believe the project is a win-win to contributors as well as to Ancestry, and will give genealogists around the world the opportunity to network and share resources. All indexes completed within the World Archives Project will be made permanently free on Ancestry.

Through this collaboration, we will be able to publish unique content sets much more quickly than we would be able to do on our own, and help save records that may not otherwise be preserved because of resource constraints. We are even excited to give contributors the ability to chime in and recommend projects to index as part of the World Archives Project.

We would love to hear what you think about the project and your ideas for making it the best experience possible. If you would like to participate in the beta and try it out, sign up here and we will notify you within a few days with a link to download the tool.

1891 Census of Canada Now on Ancestry

Suzanne Bonner — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:49:04 +0000

Ancestry today launched the 1891 Census of Canada, online for the first time. The 1891 Canadian census contains 4.5 million searchable names and 90,000 images of original census pages. Included is information from all 10 present-day Canadian provinces and its three territories. The 1891 census is fully indexed and searchable and can be accessed on Ancestry.ca, as well as on Ancestry.com here.

Content Updates

We’ve also added and or updated the following Ancestry.com databases between July 14 and July 18:

You can view the full list of recently added databases, extending back a couple of months, here: http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/recent.aspx

New Ancestry.com Databases for July

Suzanne Bonner — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:06:03 +0000

We’ve added and or updated the following Ancestry.com databases between July 6 and July 11:

United States

Great Britain

The Book of Household Management - Isabella Beeton 1869

You can view the full list of recently added databases, extending back a couple of months, here: http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/recent.aspx

Coming Soon

The following records will soon be added on Ancestry.com:

North Dakota State Census, 1915 and 1925
Illinois State Census, 1825, 1835, 1840, 1845, 1855, 1865

Ancestry.com among Family Tree Magazine’s 101 Best Websites

Suzanne Bonner — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:54:09 +0000

Ancestry.com has been named as one of the best websites for Web researchers in Family Tree Magazine’s 101 Best Websites for 2008. RootsWeb, also operated by the Generations Network, appears on the list as well in the Best for Beginning Researchers category.

Ancestry.com and RootsWeb will be highlighted in the September 2008 issue of Family Tree Magazine (hitting newsstands July 15) as well as online at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/101sites/2008/.

The Ancestry Insider Discusses the New Search

Suzanne Bonner — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:40:44 +0000

Recently, the Ancestry Insider interviewed Kendall Hulet, Director of Product Management for Ancestry.com, and asked him questions about the new Ancestry.com search. Read the Ancestry Insider’s discussion with Kendall here.

Learn About the New Search in DearMYRTLE’s Podcast

Suzanne Bonner — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:41:41 +0000

Kendall Hulet, Director of Product Management for Ancestry.com, discusses the new Ancestry.com search in this week’s edition of DearMYRTLE’s Family History Hour genealogy podcast.

Kendall offers some tricks and tips for maximizing success in the new search and explains some of the reasons and development process behind the new search.

You can listen to the podcast on DearMYRTLE’s website here. (The segment with Kendall begins 12 minutes into the podcast.)