The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2000 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. - Ancestry.com to Place U.S. Census Images Online The dream of many genealogists is about to come true: we will soon be able to view original hand-written census records on our PC screens while seated comfortably at home. In this case, it will be all of the U.S. census records that have been released by the government, including the years 1790 through 1920. Once completed, this online database will contain more than 450 million names. Ancestry.com, the sponsors of this newsletter, released the following announcement: 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 The 1890 Census Reconstruction Project is at: http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/census/1890sub/main.htm This obviously will be a huge boon for genealogists. SierraHome's Generations brand and Heritage Quest made a similar announcement a few weeks ago. They said that they would offer the entire U.S. census online "sometime this fall." (See my July 8, 2000 newsletter for details.) The new Ancestry.com announcement says that "The first images will be posted this fall, and subsequent postings will bring hundreds of millions of images to the site throughout the year." In other words, the two companies will be releasing the first documents about the same time. Does this sound like a race? You bet. And genealogists will benefit. Both companies will be enhancing the original images to improve readability. The online images should be easier to read than many of the microfilmed copies. The Ancestry.com Web site says that the Images Online census records will more faithfully reproduce original documents than mere indexes or bi-tonal, black and white images available with competitive offerings. The records will be easier to read since they will be viewed in full 256 shades of gray. SierraHome also has a lengthy description of their digital enhancements of the original handwritten records on their Web site at http://genealogydatabase.com/learnmore.html. Ancestry.com already has some sample images on their Web site today from the 1790, 1860, 1870 and 1900 U.S. censuses. I took a look at these samples and indeed they are easy to read. The images are first displayed in a Java Applet viewer. I was able to look at the images in a standard Internet Explorer or Netscape browser. However, you can add a lot more functionality if you download and install the free MrSID plug-in for your browser. Full instructions are on the Ancestry Web page. With the MrSID plug-in installed, I was able to make the displayed image larger or smaller, zoom in and out, and save to a file or print on local printer. I found that I could zoom in to the point where only a few names filled most of the computer screen. I could look at the individual strokes of the enumerator's (census taker's) handwriting. Every single example that I looked at could be decoded, even those made with mediocre handwriting. I also saved one image to a disk file and then later imported it into Microsoft Word. The whole thing was simple. This brought the entire census page into Word. If I write a book or even an article about a particular ancestor, I probably would only want to import a part of a page: those lines that list the ancestor, his or her family, their property and possibly a few other lines showing their neighbors. To do that, I would first use a paintbrush program of some sort to cut out only the part I want to use and save it to disk. I can later import only that snippet into my genealogy document. You can view sample census images online at: http://www.ancestry.com/home/celebrate/census.htm The Year 2000 looks like a great one for anyone researching U.S. ancestry. This is the year in which U.S. census records become available online for all. 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