200 Million More Historical Records Available

  • 12 October 2010

More than 700 million searchable records are now available through FamilySearch.org.

Article Highlights

  • Records available through FamilySearch’s Records Search tops 700 million.
  • New records come from Europe, Mexico, and the U.S.
  • The records are available in large part because of the 350,000 volunteer indexers worldwide.
  • This release is part of an ongoing effort to digitize and publish historical records that will continue into the future.

“What makes today’s announcement even more impressive is that FamilySearch uses predominantly a growing corps of volunteers to accomplish the task of digitizing and indexing the records for online publication.”

—Paul Nauta,
FamilySearch public affairs manager

FamilySearch.org, the official family history Web site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced the release of more than 200 million new searchable records last week, bringing the total records available on the Records Search site to 700 million. Officials made the announcement at the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference, which was held August 18–24, 2010, in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.

“Some time ago, FamilySearch committed to creating access to the world’s genealogical records online in a big way,” said Paul Nauta, FamilySearch public affairs manager. “Today’s updates are part of an ongoing effort to make good on those commitments.”

The addition includes more than 100 million new records from Mexico and countries in Europe and Scandinavia. The addition also includes 53 new or updated collections from the United States, including the 1910 U.S. Census and states’ birth, marriage, and death records. There are 10 million new records from New Jersey, 10 million from Michigan, 4 million from Tennessee, and 41 million from Massachusetts.

To access FamilySearch’s free collections, visit the Record Search pilot page. The collections will also be available soon at beta.familysearch.org.

The release of these records is possible in large part because of the 350,000 volunteers worldwide who use FamilySearch Indexing to transcribe information from images of historical records to make them digitally searchable.

“What makes today’s announcement even more impressive is that FamilySearch uses predominantly a growing corps of volunteers to accomplish the task of digitizing and indexing the records for online publication,” Brother Nauta said. “That is, in large part, how we can do it at no cost to the patron.”

This release is part of an ongoing effort to digitize and publish historical records online. When complete, the initiative will provide a definitive collection of U.S. genealogical resources through FamilySearch.org.

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