FamilySearch initiated a digital publishing proposal known as the Genesis Project last week, a key component of the Records Access Program that it announced earlier this year. The Request for Information (RFI) was issued to commercial and non-profit organizations interested in joining forces to place genealogy databases and other information online. The RFI states that FamilySearch will make images of the original records available at no cost to the service providers who, in return, agree to allow FamilySearch to make these records available for free at Family History Centers around the world, as well as to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

An interesting part of this RFI (request for information) was the list of data sets that FamilySearch has already digitized and plans to publish online over the next 24 months, including:

• U.S. Federal census records
• England and Wales census records
• U.S. county wills
• U.S. county estate files
• U.S. county deed records
• U.S. church records
• U.S. county naturalizations
• Spain parish registers
• Southern Poland Catholic parish registers
• Southern Poland Lutheran parish registers
• Germany, Bavaria, Brenner Genealogy Collection 1,526,000 - 1,526,000
• Italy parish registers
• Italy civil registration records
• Portugal church and civil registration records
• Ukraine L’viv Greek & Roman Catholic church records
• Russia St. Petersburg church records
• Hungary civil registration records
• Germany NARA SS genealogy collection
• Denmark civil registration of marriages
• U.S. county military discharges

The complete 75-page Genesis Project RFI can be read and downloaded online and makes for some interesting reading regarding the future of genealogy research!