World Archives Project vs. FamilySearch Indexing
As webmaster for my local genealogical society, my goal is to get new records online for the benefit of our members. Easy in concept, more difficult in reality. The technical realities of digitizing content, organizing an indexing project, and advertising the new databases in order to attract new members is more than most genealogical societies can take on by themselves. Thus my interest in both FamilySearch Indexing and the World Archives Project - which one offers more benefit to our society?
According to Tim Sullivan, CEO of The Generations Network, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch do not view their respective volunteer indexing projects as "competitors." Instead, each feels that they bring a "win-win" offering to the genealogy world, and their respective businesses. And a business it is - there is a goal on the part of both organizations to grow through this model.
Business aside, however, there is also a genuine goal for both projects to do their part in preserving our history. We all know that FamilySearch, the genealogy arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is interested in the preservation of historic and genealogical records, but Tim Sullivan says that Ancestry.com is in this for the same reason - to help local societies preserve those records which are being lost each year to floods, fires, neglect, disinterest, or even lack of storage space at the courthouse.
So what then is the underlying difference between the two projects? Not much that I can see. Both projects promise free access for everyone to the indexes created by the volunteer indexers. Both do not plan, however, to offer free access to the actual images themselves. FamilySearch, at least so far, is offering free access to the images online, but they have stated that in their future collaborations with societies and other organizations that not all images will be available free on their Web site. Ancestry.com also does not plan to offer online access to the images for free, although they are offering free image access to frequent contributors (currently volunteers indexing 900+ records per quarter). Both organizations will handle the expensive digitization of the records, and provide an online indexing tool which makes it easy for society members to participate in indexing the records. Both provide participating societies with a copy of the index and the digitized images for their own use (to put up on their Web site as a tool to attract new members, for example).
One apparent difference that did come out of my conversation with Tim Sullivan, is that Ancestry.com plans to actively promote the societies that participate in the World Archives Project. They have templates and a variety of tools already in place to help societies recruit volunteers and actively promote their work, in order to leverage these new online records to increase their membership. On the other side of the coin, FamilySearch Indexing is more established, with a 3-year track record, versus two months of private beta for the World Archives Project.
Overall, there are probably good reasons for societies to participate in either of the projects - it really comes down to which appeals to your organization more. Which one can meet your timeline? Which indexing tool do you find easier to use? Which can offer better promotion for your organization? And for volunteer indexers, there are good reasons to index for either project - it's really a matter of personal preference. The fact that both are available to us is definitely a win for everyone!
Comments
I’ve done some indexing for FamilySearch - not a crazy lot, but about a record a week or two. Aside from a few technical issues, it’s a great opportunity and relatively easy. I like that you can choose the project that you want to work on, and that there’s a variety of different documents to index.
I haven’t been able to use Ancestry’s though - since their program isn’t available for mac users. And, at this time it doesn’t seem that they have any plans to open up the project. I’ve tried contacting them to ask them about this in multiple ways but have not received a response.
How does one get involved with indexing for ancestry and ho is the job done?
I do not like the fact that Ancestry is charging more and more each year and offering less in the way of quality searches. I would like to volunteer for this project but I think in a way, Ancestry is ripping us off. I do volunteer for the Familysearch indexing.
perhaps Ancestry.com, having no connection with any religion, will appear less threatening to churches who do not appreciate the thought of their deceased members being retroactively baptized into a different religion.
I index for FamilySearch and will continue to do so. However, even though Ancestry is too expensive for most people, the more data that is indexed, the better. And, as another person said, people that do not want to be involved with the LDS Church, can index for Ancestry. Every record indexed means someone else might be able to find their ancestor.
The historical records (images) are scanned into their system. I believe this will make up the bulk of their records. You may enter facts from records to create an index. You’ll be able to search this index but you won’t find much useful information in it. You’ll need the scanned records and that will cost you. Ancestry.com is more interested making a buck than in helping you. Of course they’d like your help to do it.
It actually comes down to which organization can you trust.
I agree with Bob (6)prices keep going up at ancestry.com. I wonder how much of a monetary exchange is taking place on these agreements. I have indexed for family search for quite some time thinking the data entry I was entering would remain free to all. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case.
If you read the information from FamilySearch Indexing carefully, you will see that the indexes will remain free to all users, so the indexing you are doing will remain accessible, free of charge to everyone.
Access to some of the images associated with the indexes may require pay per view or subscriptions to the sites where the images are being hosted, if they are not being hosted on FamilySearch.org, but the indexes to these images will still be free.
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I am using RootsMagic version 3.6 and have access to Family Search. The new Family Search is not out yet, but RootsMagic will be an affiliate to that. The New Family Search is a co-operative between several organizations. The indexes will be available for most of the input. The indexes I’ve seen are very detailed and if the image is available for the public it is included. However there are locations that prefer that the images not be made available online, but may still be available at a specific location.
The index gives this info so you won’t have to do a lot of digging for it.
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FamilySearch cannot promise that all of its indexed digital images will be free to the public because of possible restrictions upon some of the records that are owned by its partners. (For the same reason, not all microfilms that are in the catalog can be loaned to Family History Centers.)
However, I am confident that absent such second-party restrictions, all the Internet services of FamilySearch will continue to be free.
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