November 11, 2008: Ancestry.ca and FamilySearch Announce Agreement to Digitize and Index Existing Canadian Censuses

[The following is from a press release dated 10 November 2008.]

Ancestry.ca announced a joint initiative with FamilySearch International to improve online access to a comprehensive collection of Canadian censuses. As part of the agreement, FamilySearch will digitize and index Canadian census records that Ancestry.ca has acquired. These digitized and indexed records will then be made available to Ancestry.ca members on the company's Web site, and the indexes will be available for free to the public at FamilySearch.org. The images will be free to qualified FamilySearch members and all FamilySearch family history centers.

FamilySearch will deliver images and indexes to Ancestry.ca for censuses from 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1916, to launch online in 2009. In return, Ancestry.ca will provide indexes to FamilySearch for the 1891 and 1901 censuses.

[Please note: Qualified FamilySearch members include indexers who submit 900 names in 90 days and receive 90 days of free image access. The validation system that will enable FamilySearch to authenticate qualified FamilySearch members will be implemented in 2009.]

November 4, 2008: Indexing Servers Back Up and Running

We successfully moved the indexing servers yesterday faster than we had planned. The system was back up and running by 3:00 PM MST. You should be able to open the application, download and submit batches as you did before.

If you have any issues opening the application, first try to click the Start Indexing button in the bottom right corner of this screen. If that doesn't open the application for you, click here for further suggestions.

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Completed indexes are free to the public and can be searched now at www.familysearch.org (point your mouse at Search Records and then click Record Search pilot).