Every so often, Ancestry.com offers free access to a particular collection of records, documents, and photographs. You don’t have to be a member of Ancestry.com in order to search through those records, but, it is only offered for a limited time. Right now, Ancestry.com is offering free access to their Titanic collection. This offer will end on April 15, 2012.
One hundred years ago, the RMS Titanic sank into the waters of the north Atlantic. April 15, 2012, is the One Hundredth Anniversary of this tragic disaster. This means that there will be a whole lot of events, movies, and exhibits that commemorate the sinking of the Titanic. National Geographic, PBS, and ABC will be showing programs that connect to the Titanic in one way or another.
Ancestry.com, one of the most popular, and largest, genealogy websites, is recognizing the 100 Year Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in their own way. They are offering free access to their Titanic Collection from right now through April 15, 2012. This means that you can explore and do research from those records without being a member of Ancestry.com.
The Titanic Collection includes 200 million Immigration and Travel records. It is broken down into several different categories, including: Passenger Lists, Citizenship & Naturalization Records, Border Crossings & Passports, Crew Lists, Immigration & Emigration Books, and Ships Pictures & Descriptions. These records come from the United States and several other countries from around the world.
Another way to get started searching through these records is to click on the giant orange button that says “Search Now”. This brings you to directly to a search engine. Under the search engine, there is a list of other data collections you can search through.
They are all new ones. This includes: “Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada RMS Titanic Fatality Reports, 1912”, “Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, RMS Titanic Graves, 1912”, “Titanic Survivors, Carpathia Passenger List, 1912”, “UK, RMS Titanic, Crew Records, 1912”, “UK, RMS Titanic, Deaths at Sea, 1912”, and “UK, RMS Titanic, Outward Passenger List, 1912”.
The main page of Ancestry.com that talks about free access to their Titanic collection also has a few other interesting things for genealogists to check out. There is a photo gallery of images of the Titanic, the lifeboats filled with survivors, and a few newspaper headlines. There is also a section that looks at the top ten myths surrounding the Titanic, and the facts that are related to the myths.
Image by Dave Parker on Flickr