Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Active Ancestry.com World Archives Projects

I was curious about the status of the Ancestry.com World Archives Project. This is a volunteer effort by Ancestry.com users, and participating organizations like genealogical societies, to index genealogy and family history records. The Ancestry.com World Archives Project summary page is here.

The Active World Archives Projects include (with notations about Easy, Average or Advanced Skills required, and the percentage complete):

1) Available (The "Available" project list means that a project is available for download for keying or arbitration):

* Tarjetas Postales Antiguas de Mexico (Mexico Historical Postcards) -- Easy -- 38%
* Canada Historical Postcards (Les Cartes Postales du Canada ) -- Easy -- 71%
* Michigan Passenger and Crew Lists, 1902-1954 -- Easy -- 54%
* Les Cartes Postales de la France(France Historical Postcards) -- Easy -- 38%
* N. California Naturalization Indexes -- Easy -- 88%


* Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-20, 22 -- Advanced -- 51%
* Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Piemonte, Italia: Registri di Matrimonio e Morte, 1866-1937 (Italy: Marriage and Death Records) -- Advanced -- 96%
* Värmland, Sverige: Husförhörslängder, 1694-1895 (Värmland, Sweden: Household Examination Records) -- Advanced --1%
* Lübeck Volkszählung 1851 (Lübeck Census 1851) -- Average -- 63%
* Lübeck Volkszählung 1857 (Lübeck Census 1857) -- Average -- 36%

* Lübeck Volkszählung 1862 (Lübeck Census 1862) -- Average -- 7%
* Pavia, Lombardia, Italia: Registri di Matrimonio, 1866-1937 (Registers of Marriage) -- Advanced -- 7%
* Pavia, Lombardia, Italia: Registri di Morte, 1866-1937 (Registers of Deaths) -- Advanced -- 14%
* Varese, Lombardia, Italia: Registri di Matrimonio, 1866-1937 (Varese Marriage Registrations) -- Advanced -- 3%
* Varese, Lombardia, Italia: Registri di Morte, 1866-1937 (Varese Death Registrations) -- Advanced -- 10%


* New York, U.S. Naturalization Records - Original Documents, 1795-1972 -- Average -- 10%
* California, U.S. Naturalization Records - Original Documents, 1795-1972 -- Average --33%
* Pennsylvania, U.S. Naturalization Records - Original Documents, 1795-1972 -- Average -- 31%
* Jacksonville, Florida Area City Directories -- Average -- 59%
* Cartoline storiche d'Italia (Italy Historical Postcards) -- Easy -- 80%

* British Postal Service Appointment Books -- Average -- 45%
* RI, NJ, CT - Returns from US Military Posts, 1800-1916 -- Advanced -- 5%
* IL, MI, IN - Returns from US Military Posts, 1800-1916 -- Advanced -- 10%
* VA, WV, NC, SC - Returns from US Military Posts, 1800-1916 -- Advanced -- 11%
* TX - Returns from US Military Posts, 1800-1916 -- Advanced -- 12%


* KS, NE, OK - Returns from US Military Posts, 1800-1916 -- Advanced -- 6%
* CO, ID, NM, UT, MXB - Returns from US Military Posts, 1800-1916 -- Advanced -- 3%
* CA, HI, AK - Returns from US Military Posts, 1800-1916 -- Advanced -- 1%
* Tax & Rent Records Perth, Scotland -- Advanced -- 1%
* Valuation Registers Perth, Scotland -- Average -- 12%

* UK, Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books, 1802-1849 -- Average -- 5%
* Ohio State Directories, 1902-1933 -- Average -- 62%
* Lorain County, Ohio, City Directories, 1903-1960 -- Average -- 39%
* Canada, Nominal Rolls and Paylists for the Volunteer Militia, 1872-1914 -- Average -- 2%
* New South Wales, Australia, Police Gazettes, 1854-1930 -- Average -- 7%


* London, England, School Admissions and Discharges, 1841-1911 -- Average -- 5%
* Sydney and New South Wales, Sands Street Index, 1861-1930 Part 2 -- Average -- 67%
* Buffalo Soldiers, Returns from Regular Army Cavalry Regiments, 1866-1916 -- Average -- 7%
* Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, 1936-1938 -- Average -- 47%

For most of these databases, the images are already online at Ancestry.com and are available for browsing through the images. Since the indexes have not been completed, a general Ancestry.com search will not find matches in these databases.

The list above changes regularly, so check back on the Ancestry World Archives Project page for regular updates.

The page also has several other categories:

2) Unavailable (The "Unavailable" project list contains projects that aren’t available for keying or arbitration because all of the image sets have been checked out. Projects on this list may re-appear on the Available list as image sets are rejected or expire without being keyed.):

* Southern California Naturalization Indexes -- Easy -- 100%
* NYC Naturalization Indexes -- Easy -- 100%
* Washington and Montana Naturalization Indexes -- Easy -- 100%

3) In Processing (The "In Processing" list contains projects that have completed keying and arbitration by the community. These projects are now being worked on by the Ancestry team to prepare the indexes and images to go live on the site as searchable, indexed databases.).

4) Live (The "Live" project list contains links to all projects keyed by the World Archives contributors that are live and searchable on the site.).

This is a very worthwhile volunteer indexing project and there can be significant rewards on Ancestry.com for those that key a lot of entries. Read more about the Ancestry World Archives Project here.

No comments: