1. Parenting & Family

Ancestry.com, Inc. to Acquire Archives.com for $100 million

Wednesday April 25, 2012

Ancestry.com announced this afternoon that it has entered into an agreement to acquire family history website Archives.com for approximately $100 million in cash and assumed liabilities. You can view the full press release on GeneaPress. Archives.com offers access to over 2.1 billion historical records and in just over two years has grown to more than $380,000 paying subscribers at an annual subscription fee of $39.95.

Now before you start grumbling about Ancestry.com gobbling up everything, it is important to realize that Ancestry sees Archives.com as a complementary offering, not a competitor, and plans to continue operating the site much as it is now with different search options, mostly different record sets, and a lower subscription rate. Much as with Ancestry's acquisition of Fold3, Archives.com will continue to retain its own brand, website, and customer base under the Ancestry.com umbrella. According to Ancestry.com CEO Tim Sullivan, Archives.com will not become a clone of Ancestry. Ancestry.com likes the vision that Archives.com has for its online family history service, and plans to leverage the resources of Ancestry.com along with the employees of Inflection/Archives.com to help achieve these goals. As a separate product from Ancestry.com, Archives.com will continue to focus on attracting new users to family history with a product that is affordable and easy to use.

FamilySearch Indexing the 1940 Census - How to Get it Right!

Tuesday April 17, 2012

It is frustrating as a volunteer FamilySearch indexer to spend oodles of extra time making sure you get every last name and detail deciphered correctly, only to have an arbitrator come back and undo your hard work because they didn't spend the same quality time. Or to have one of your batches come back with multiple arbitrated changes -- for situations such as blank lines and 1935 place of residence where you feel you have followed the rules correctly. From an arbitrator's point of view, however, I can say it is equally frustrating having to ding an excellent indexer's arbitration results for a easily avoided, minor error repeated over and over.

Just so we are all on the same page here, this is not a rant or grumble about poor indexing or arbitration -- far from it. I applaud everyone who is volunteering their time to help make the 1940 census more easily available to all (not to mention that there are many genealogical discoveries to be made with the use of an index). We aren't all perfect (at least I'm not). But for all of you out there helping to index and/or arbitrate the 1940 US Census index for FamilySearch, here are some tips and resources to help us all get it right and eliminate most if not all of the frustration. Read More...

Celebrities in the 1940 Census

Tuesday April 10, 2012

The recent release of the 1940 U.S. Census provides an interesting lens into the lives of many famous Americans. Celebrity actors, sports stars, authors, artists, and scientists can all be found among its pages, including Clark Gable of "Gone With the Wind" fame living with his new wife, Carole Lombard, outside of Los Angeles, less than two years before her death in a tragic plane crash. And while I'm talking about tragic plane crashes, the 1940 census also includes famous baseball legend Roberto Clemente, who died when his plane went down during a humanitarian mission to Nicaragua on 31 December 1972 with relief supplies for earthquake victims.

The brainy Albert Einstein is the first person I looked for in the 1940 census - even before my own grandparents if you can believe that. But it was for my 10-year-old daughter who was portraying him during a presentation at school that day, so I just couldn't resist. From there, I just started having fun practicing my search skills by looking for Famous Americans in the 1940 U.S. Census, locating not only Hollywood celebrities such as Clint Eastwood, but also other iconic American names, including E. E. Cummings, Babe Ruth, Henry Ford, Tom Brokaw, Neil Armstrong and Frank Lloyd Wright.

And yes, I also located two of my three grandparents who were living in America at the time!

Help Index the 1940 US Census!

Tuesday April 10, 2012

When I finally get the chance to show my grandmother the 1940 U.S. census image which includes her and her family, I know I will get some great new stories! Who were all of those neighbors who she grew up with as friends? Where was she looking for work during the final week of March in 1940? How soon after 1 April 1940 did she finally get that job at the Western Union office where she would meet my grandfather in 1941? The 1940 Census is a great vehicle for inspiring new family stories, but how can we as genealogists help to get those conversations started? One of the best ways, I believe, is to help get the census indexed as quickly as possible -- making the records more accessible for discovery by the general public. What a great boost to genealogy this could be!

After getting over the excitement of exploring the 1940 census upon its release last Tuesday, I have finally settled down to help get the indexes online. It is super easy once you become familiar with using the free online indexing software, and indexing a batch of 40 names doesn't take much time out of your day. It's also helped me to become familiar with enumeration quirks and abbreviations, variations that I might not have otherwise noticed. The increased familiarity can only help me as a genealogist to pull every last bit of information out of these 1940 census records.

As of April 10, FamilySearch Indexing volunteers have the state of Delaware fully indexed, followed closely by Colorado (89%), Kansas (86%), and Oregon (82%). Also well underway are the states of Virginia (23%) and New Hampshire (17%). Indexing has also begun in additional states including California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, and Illinois. Won't you join us?

FamilySearch Indexing Step-by-Step

FamilySearch Indexing - The Latest Status by State

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