Ancestry.com transcribes slave records.

Ancestry.com transcribes slave records.

Article Type:

Brief article

Subject:

Information services (Services)
Information services (Information management)
Information services industry (Services)
Information services industry (Information management)

Pub Date:

07/01/2009

Publication:

Name: Information Management Journal Publisher: Association of Records Managers & Administrators (ARMA) Audience: Trade Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Business; Computers and office automation industries; Library and information science Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2009 Association of Records Managers & Administrators (ARMA) ISSN: 1535-2897

Issue:

Date: July-August, 2009 Source Volume: 43 Source Issue: 4

Topic:

Event Code: 360 Services information; 260 General services Computer Subject: Information services industry; Company systems management

Product:

Product Code: 7399200 Info Services ex Database NAICS Code: 514199 All Other Information Services

Organization:

Company Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.; Ancestry.com Operations Inc.

Geographic:

Geographic Scope: United States

Accession Number:

214101206

Full Text:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Ancestry.com is looking for few good transcribers to help it post tens of millions of historical records online for the first time.

The company has launched the World Archives Project to expand its current database of 7 billion historical records. Included are U.S. naturalization records, slave manifests from 1807 to 1860, and newspaper index cards from England, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Photographic images of the records will be available to Ancestry.com's subscribers, while the transcribed database of records, once posted, will be available online free of charge.

The company said nearly 35 million documents will be transcribed through the project this year. To do so, it has called on its user community to help transcribe the records. Already, the company said, about 6 million records have been transcribed by 11,000 volunteers in 65 countries.

The records include marriage records and slave manifests from naturalization cards. According to the Chronicle, the manifests, filed in Louisiana between 1807 and 1860, document the transporting of more than 30,000 slaves to the port of New Orleans.

To learn more or to participate in the project, visit http://community. ancestry.com/wap/download.aspx.

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