One of the largest available online family history resources is teaming up with other organizations to make more ancestral records available to the public.

FamilySearch is a non-profit organization operating out of Salt Lake City, partnering with Ancestry.com to publish complete U.S. census records from 1790 to 1930.

In addition, FamilySearch has reached an agreement with other genealogy organizations, The Origins Network and www.findmypast.com, to publish census data for England and Wales from 1841 to 1901.

Ancestry.com currently holds records of the U.S. Federal Censuses from 1790 to 1930. They have agreed to turn the records over to FamilySearch, who will convert the master microfilm copies into a digital format and add them to their existing census records.

These improved copies will be made available on Ancestry.com to subscribers and later for free at any of FamilySearch's 4,500 Family History Centers throughout the U.S. or at www.FamilySearch.org.

"The U.S. censuses are arguably the most important collection of U.S. genealogical records," said Jay Merkler, managing director for FamilySearch, in a news release.

Tim Sullivan, president and CEO of The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com, said the publishing of the censuses will lead to significant advances in family history research.

"The enhanced U.S. Federal Census Collection that will become available through this agreement is a gold mine for family history researchers," Sullivan said.

Allen Weinstein, archivist of the United States, said census records are essential for genealogy and he was pleased with the efforts of FamilySearch and Ancestry.com.

"Having two of our partners working together to enhance the indexes and images of these essential documents will enable an unprecedented level of access and understanding," Weinstein said in a news release.

The England and Wales censuses from 1851, 1871 and 1881, will be provided in digital format under FamilySearch's agreement with The Origin Network and Findmypast.com.

The records will be indexed by FamilySearch volunteers, and users will be able to view these indexes for free at www.FamilySearch.org.

Elaine Collins, commercial director for Findmypast.com, said she was excited users will have a greater ability to find their ancestors.

"Censuses are the core building blocks for family historians and genealogists alike, and now, at last, here is the definitive version," Collins said.

Sister Marilyn Lewis of Provo has worked as a missionary in the Family History Center at the Harold B. Lee Library for almost 20 years. She said census data is critical to genealogy work.

"It is a marvelous and invaluable online tool," Lewis said. "I wouldn't be anywhere without censuses."

Lewis said census data serves as an important locator and entry tool for finding other genealogical records.

"If you can locate a family name on a census and find out where they lived at that time, you can often go to other records like marriage licenses from the region and find even more information," she said.

However, she said census data isn't always easy to interpret. Imaged copies of census data is often difficult to read because of the age of the documents and the preferences of the census takers, she said.

Lewis said census takers in the U.S would go door to door and ask the name of each family. They then copied down the name, spelling it however sounded right to them.

Enhanced images, she said, coupled with a deeper index, will be enormously helpful in helping to sort out confusing documents and find ancestors.

The updated indexes will be made available on FamilySearch.org as they are completed.

Copyright Brigham Young University 1 Aug 2008