Free Access to U.S. Military Collection at Ancestry.com
The announcement of free access to historical military records at Ancestry.com was part of a much bigger announcement of a partnership between the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and Ancestry.com - one first proposed back in March of this year. The nonexclusive agreement is similar to one that NARA already has in place with Footnote.com and FamilySearch.org. The terms of each individual agreement between NARA and its partners vary, but essentially the partner (in this case Ancestry.com) digitizes and hosts certain NARA holdings at its expense. Each partner negotiates its own agreement with respect to fees that may be charged for access to the records on its Web site, but free access to the digitized records is always available in NARA's research rooms.
Ancestry.com already has millions of historical records from the National Archives in its online collection, including passenger lists from 1820-1960 and WWI and WWII draft registration cards. The new agreement means increased online access to the vast holdings of NARA at a rate much faster than NARA could offer on its own. The initial NARA collections to be digitized under this agreement include Death Notices of U.S. Citizens Abroad from 1835-1974 and INS Passenger and Crew Arrival and Departure Lists from 1897-1958 - records which have previously only been available to the public through NARA research facilities. More on the agreement and the long-term relationship between Ancestry.com and NARA, including some interesting statistics on the vast number of NARA records that have already been digitized, can be found at www.ancestry.com/nara.
This is a win-win arrangement for genealogists as far as I'm concerned. I can't wait!
Comments
I’m still looking for the FREE military records. Every link I try is just another sales pitch for ancestry.com!
Still Looking for Great Grandfather David Larkin Thompson Was in Wallowa County Oregon in the 1910 era. All I get is a Joining Fee when it has sed FREE. Being on a fixed incomeof 800 a motth I can not join.
If it says FREE then it should be FREE and it is NOT FREE how do you expect people to trust your site
I too have not been able to find any “FREE” military search sites. To not have Military records available for free is a travesty. I have been trying to find my grandfather’s records of service and injury during the Spanish American War to no avail.
When web pages say, “FREE” that is exactly what they should and must be. If not list prices upfront and don’t waste our time with there phony come-ons. It is bad enough on a standard google search for the deception, but it is intolerable on About.com.