FHC Access to Ancestry.com to be Discontinued
Because of existing contractual agreements, a select number of Ancestry.com databases will continue to be accessible inside LDS Church family history centers. These include the 1880, 1900 and 1920 U.S. censuses, full name indices for the British 1841-1891 censuses (England and Wales), World War I draft cards, and a few additional smaller databases. Free access to the majority of the Ancestry.com service will be discontinued at FHCs, however.
The reason for this change in business relationship isn't addressed in the letter, but I would guess it has at least something to do with the competition that will come from the FamilySearch Scanstone and Indexing projects, a massive, ongoing project to digitize and index the records held by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in their Granite Mountain Vault. These images and indexes, as they are completed, will be made available for free access. Want to help speed things up? Sign up as a FamilySearch Indexing volunteer!
Thanks to Joy Rich for the heads up :)
Comments
Dick Eastman posted about this yesterday. There is more to the story, I think….
March 18, 2007
Ancestry.com Terminates Free Access in Family History Centers
The Generations Network, Inc, the owner of Ancestry.com, MyFamily.com, Rootsweb.com, Genealogy.com, and Family Tree Maker, has released a statement about recent negotiations with the Family History Centers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In short, the company is now halting the practice of giving free access to Ancestry.com to all Family History Centers. Thousands of genealogists have visited local Family History Centers in order to gain free access to services that normally cost $100 to $300 per year or more. Obviously, those people are going to be very disappointed with this news.
Here is the official announcement from The Generations Network, followed by my comments:
A STATEMENT FROM ANCESTRY.COM REGARDING THE RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
>> read the rest <<
[Edited by Kimberly to link to Dick Eastman’s blog post and comments, rather than including the full text here - but thanks for the information, Terry!]
And yes, there are - as with most stories - two sides. See my next blog post, above, with additional insight into the story as well:
http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/255932.htm
~Kimberly
Ancestry Have Removed My Family Tree FromAncestry.Com And Are Selling It On Gegeology.Com Without My Permission.Can Anyone Advise A Pensioner How To Get It Back.It Has Taken 2 Years Hardwork Getting it Done Over 400 In The Tree