BIG NEWS! Houston County Researchers: For those of you who haven't already heard, yesterday's news contained an announcement that will revolutionalize genealogical research. What will come about this Fall, will be a major milestone for researchers. There has been a lot of talk about such a project as this one coming about, but no one knew for sure *when*. Below, is the announcement from Ancestry Daily News: =======>>> CENSUS IMAGES ONLINE COMING TO ANCESTRY.COM Images Online(tm) Enables Members to View and Print Images of Census Records Instantly =========================================== Ancestry.com, part of MyFamily.com, Inc., the leading online family network, today announced the launch of an immense project to create digitized images of every record from the U.S. Federal Census between the years 1790 and 1920. Beginning today, sample images from census records have been posted to the site, enabling users to preview the types of information contained on these original documents. These census records, which Ancestry.com recently obtained from the National Archives, contain more than 450 million names. "The ability to view census records online is one of the most significant advancements in online genealogy to date," said Curt Witcher, manager of the Historical Genealogy Department of the Allen County Public Library. "Viewing original documents online not only saves people time and money by enabling them to view census records in their own living room, but original documents contain a wealth of information and may help researchers go beyond what they can find in an index." Once these images are launched as part of the new Ancestry.com Images Online(tm) service, the original census records will be viewable and printable online with an Ancestry.com Census Subscription. Through Images Online(tm), these census records will more faithfully reproduce original documents than mere indexes or bi-tonal, black and white images available with competitive offerings. The first images will be posted this fall, and subsequent postings will bring hundreds of millions of images to the site throughout the year. With the addition of these new census records, more than 1 billion records will be fully searchable on Ancestry.com by the end of this year. "By offering images of these census schedules, Ancestry.com is taking online genealogy to the next level," said Andre Brummer, general manager of Ancestry.com. "Census records are one of the most significant sources of family history information. Making original documents available online enables people to view and print documents that have traditionally been stored on microfilm and are only available in limited numbers of archives and libraries throughout the nation." In addition to the 450 million new records, Ancestry.com recently began an innovative project to reconstruct the vast amount of information lost when a 1921 fire destroyed nearly the entire 1890 census. The census substitute is the largest project of its kind and will fill the void that was created when the fire destroyed insight into an entire generation's family demographics, occupations, and much more. Ancestry.com is using remaining fragments of the original 1890 census, 1890 special veterans schedules, several Indian tribe censuses for years surrounding 1890, state censuses (1885 or 1895), city and county directories, alumni directories, and voter registration documents to construct a census substitute. More than 20 million records have been identified for inclusion in the census substitute. You can view sample census images online at: http://www.ancestry.com/home/celebrate/census.htm ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.