It is always a good thing when a genealogy website adds collections of records to its website. Archives.com has just added a full set of the U. S. Federal Population Census indexes to its collections. Data from the census is extremely useful for genealogists.
Archives.com is a family history website. They have more than 1.5 billion historical records available to genealogists who use their service. The website first launched in 2009, and it has a tendency to team up with other genealogy websites in order to add new collections of records to their database.
This is one of the more affordable genealogy websites out there. It isn’t free to become a member of, buy you do get a free trial that lasts seven days. After that, if you want to continue to be a member of Archives.com, it will cost you $39.95 per year. You can use Archives.com to build your family tree, to browse through their collections of records, and to learn tips and tricks from family history experts.
Archives.com recently added the U.S. Census records to its collections. These records were made available by FamilySearch International. You have probably heard of FamilySearch. It is an extremely popular genealogy website that was established by, and run by, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. FamilySearch is the world’s largest genealogy organization, and it is one that everyone can use for free.
The collection that has just been added to Archives.com includes the full set of the United States Federal Population Census indexes from 1790 through 1930. The collection includes over 500 million names, and 3 million images (from census years 1850, 1870, and 1900). Sometime soon, the entire set of census images will be made accessible.
It has been said that the U.S. Census is the ultimate resource for genealogists who are trying to find information about their American ancestors. You can find out where your ancestor lived, who they lived with, and the birth dates of relatives. The census might list your ancestor’s occupations.
If you need help sorting through it, there is a link on the Archives.com website that can provide some clues. Expert genealogist Craig Rice has some tips about how to search through the U.S. Census.
Interestingly, Archives.com is not going to increase its annual membership fee after adding the new collection of records. There is also not going to be an extra charge for people to browse through the new collection.
Part of why they are able to do this might be because they teamed up with FamilySearch International, in order to work on digitizing historical records that have never been seen online before. My guess is that since they are getting help with the “labor” aspect of things, they don’t feel a need to charge their members extra for it.
Image by Carissa Rogers on Flickr