World Archives Project

Over the past few months we have been hard at work on updating the keying tool.  The keying tool 2.0 will be available in the coming weeks – likely end of October. Due to backend changes occurring at Ancestry the keying tool will be down starting the 30th until the new tool is ready.  Unfortunately, […]

The project, U.S. Southern Claims Commission, Disallowed and Barred Claims, 1871-1880 has been with the community since early 2013.  Due to how long the project is taking, we’ve decided to carve rolls off and send them to a payed indexer.  The project, once complete, will be merged back together and made available free to the […]

Six years ago, coinciding with the Days of Remembrance, Ancestry and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum introduced  the World Memory Project.  Over the past six years we have accomplished a lot.  The projects we have completed are generally in German and Polish but we have also indexed Czech, English, French and Romanian records – we applaud all who have contributed. […]

Today marks eight years since the World Archives Project officially went live.  In eight years we have… Contributed more than 149 million records Completed 350 projects – 336 live databases on Ancestry Become a great community Thank you to all who have contributed over the years – indexing, answering questions, providing feedback – you have made a […]

Last month marked the unofficial 8th anniversary of the World Archives Project.  This time eight years ago was hectic – working through the invited beta, getting ready for the public to see the keying tool, getting help articles ready, and convincing others that we were ready for this.  Offsetting the hectic pace was the excitement […]

Five years ago we announced our partnership with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the creation of the World Memory Project.  Since that time the project has grown to 3500+ contributors, 3.4+ million records contributed, and 23 databases for searching! We celebrate this anniversary coinciding with the Days of Remembrance events – time set […]

In the past 6 months we have indexed 246,991 image sets (close to 7 million records), completed 20 projects and released 18 databases for searching.  Wow! Projects that are 100% keyed: England, Somerset, Gaol Registers, 1807-1879 – 734 image sets remaining New South Wales, Australia, Land Records, 1856-1859 (Part 2) – 1042 image sets remaining […]

Our last update was in September and in the past 3 months we have made great progress. Projects that have been available for over a year. Cartes électorales de Paris et ses environs et d’autres villes françaises, 1900-1932 (France Electoral Cards)  (Now: 27.4% Then: 23.3%) Dorset, England, Quarter Session Order Books, 1625-1951 (Now: 75.7% Then: 65.5%) Kansas, […]

  Early this morning we achieved a huge milestone!  The record count started with invited beta testing in June 2008 and we reached 100,000,000 records keyed early this morning.  What an amazing accomplishment by an equally amazing community of contributors.  Thank you for your contributions, dedication to quality, and continued support of the World Archives […]

This past fall the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry launched a program for students in the U.S. to participate in keying records as part of their experience in learning about the Holocaust. The USHMM education staff have reached out to schools and we currently have 3 schools participating in the program. Having two […]