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September 8, 2013

Answers to Concerns Over FamilySearch & Ancestry Partnership Deal

Answers to Concerns Over FamilySearch & Ancestry Partnership Deal
Recently FamilySearch and Ancestry.com announced a 5 year partnership to digitize over 1 billion records and publish them online.

As is often the case the nay-sayers, those who think anything Ancestry.com touches is evil, came out of the woodwork with doom and gloom accusations and prophecies.

The two most common complaints/accusations/questions I saw on social media sites were:


1. Why should I do any volunteer transcribing for FamilySearch if they are just going to let Ancestry.com put them online and charge for them??? 

2. So now FamilySearch is going to start charging us to see their records???

Well thanks to FamilySearch posting on their blog we have the answers to these concerns. A quick read will show you the concerns are unwarranted. 

Yes folks this is a GOOD THING. We will have access to many more records than we had previously. And the new records will be FREE to view. Always.

I call that win-win.

Credits: "Stressed Man Sitting On Globe" by Master isolated images on FreeDigitalPhotos.net

6 comments:

Celia Lewis said...

Don't you just blink in astonishment when people leap to conclusions before finding out the details?? Sigh. Thanks for posting this, Lorine. Clear. Positive. A HUGE win-win!!

Olive Tree Genealogy said...

Celia you took the words right out of my mouth!

I shake my head and think "a few minutes of research would show you how wrong you are!" whenever folks jump onto the negativity conspiracy wagon like that

Carrie Portlance said...

What's funny is reading the comments on your link to the Family Search responses. People are still mad about indexing and Ancestry profiting. The Family Search post clearly states the records indexed, "will continue to be available at no cost to visitors of FamilySearch.org"

I'm wondering if this will end up like some other records on Family Search though, for example the 1860 census which you can search on Family Search but if you want to see the actual record, there's a link to Fold3.

Ron Englestead said...

I believe Carrie hit an important fact. The 1960 Census is searchable but you need to pay to see the results. I am trusting Family Search indexing that that will not happen. I for one will still be indexing even if in the future the records we search will cost us to see.
Please keep indexing.

Dennis Chesley said...

Sounds like a great deal for Family Search, but why would Ancestry give away what they can charge for. What does Ancestry get out of it?

Anonymous said...

"What does Ancestry get out of it?". Cheap labor for one; more info to post secondly. They also do contracts with libraries and archives (New York State comes to mind) where they (Ancestry) digitize records that the government cannot afford to, give them free access through the government web site, and may charge to see on Ancestry. See: http://publish.ancestry.com/Group/100521/Profile, for an example.