A five-year partnership agreement between the U.S. National Archives and FamilySearch was announced today that will lead to the digitization of millions of historical documents over the next several years. The bulk of these digital images and related indices will be freely accessible through FamilySearch.org, Family History Centers worldwide, and the National Archives and its Regional Centers. The records to be digitized by FamilySearch will include court, military, land and other government records that aren't currently readily accessible at the National Archives.
The first digitization effort is already underway. FamilySearch is digitising the first 3,150 Civil War widow pension application files (approximately 500,000 pages). After digitization these documents will be posted online at Footnote.com, with free indexes available at FamilySearch.org. The plan is to digitize all 1,280,000 of these files over the coming years.
This is welcome news. A few years ago I requested my GG-Mother’s civil war widow’s pension record from NARA; it revealed much about my Scottish GGF Peter Turner Stoker and wife Amelia Ohlsen who settled in Manitowoc Co, US in 1851 after marrying and emigrating from Norway. To know some of these records will be made available at no cost is a real benefit to those of us researching our family. Thank you so much, Jayne, Madison WI
Family Search – LDS Church – is having this done with volunteers online. If you are intersted in helping go to http://www.familysearchindexing.org/en/index.jsp and volunteer. It is very interesting and rewarding.