CensusTools

Exciting times are here for census researchers. The world is becoming increasingly digitized and we can now enjoy the luxury of viewing original census records from the comfort of our home computers! In this issue I will present digital census record products from three sources, Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com and Heritage Quest. The information presented is current as of 23 February as seen at each website.

Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com is making digitally enhanced census images from 1790-1920 available online. They currently have most of the 1900 and 1920 census online and all of 1790. They plan to have the entire 1790-1920 collection available in the coming months. Until recently Ancestry said their target date was 31 March 2001. I don't see a specific target date anymore so they may have slipped behind schedule. Still, the 1900 and 1920 census projects are two of the largest and they are almost done. The rest of the census years should come online at an increasingly quickening pace. Late spring to early summer is probably a safe bet.

Ancestry's Image Online census collection will eventually be indexed, but for now the images of individual census pages are browsable by state, county, and township. For those of us who simply want to download images of the records we have already researched, the lack of an index is not an obstacle. For those doing original research, a view of Soundex films would still be the quickest way of finding a record before using the browse feature.

Ancestry.com is recommending that researchers use a browser plug-in (available at Ancestry) to best view the available digitized images. The plug-in is not requred but it does make downloading faster and the images can be saved to hard drive and printed from the plug-in. In fact, Ancestry is specifically touting the ability to save and print census images. The plug-in also features zooming and scrolling. There are sample images available at Ancestry from various census years. These images appear to be quite clean with clear writing against a bright white backgrounds.

The Images Online collection is available by subscription. For researchers who are already subscribers to Ancestry's other paid collections, the cost is $39.95 for a one year subscription and $19.95 for a quarterly subscription. For non-members, the prices are $59.95 and $19.95. An Images Online subscription also includes online access to digitized images of the Civil War Pension Index. I would recommend Ancestry.com's service for anyone researching the 1900 and 1920 census, comfortable in the knowledge that the rest of the 1790-1920 census will be online in the coming months.

Genealogy.com

Genealogy.com has digitally enhanced images from the 1900 census available for 24 states. They are adding states and images quickly, but there is no indication at their website when they plan to have the entire 1900 census available. There is also no indication at their website whether they plan to add the other census years.

The Genealogy.com 1900 collection is fully indexed, eliminating the middle step of searching the Soundex to find a particular record. A subscriber enters a name in a search window and matches are returned with a link to the matching census image(s). No plug-in is required but it is not clear from the website whether the images displayed can be saved or how printing is handled. For those researchers considering subscribing to an online census image service who want to archive census images, those are questions to ask before purchasing a subscription.

There is one sample image online and it is quite good. Clear writing against a bright white background. The Genealogy.com 1900 census image collection is available by subscription. A one year subscription runs $99.99, presently on sale from $129.99, and a monthly subscription is available at $19.99. I would recommend Genealogy.com to anyone narrowly focused on the 1900 census who hasn't already researched the Soundex films to identify their ancestors. For anyone who already knows where to look in the 1900 census, Ancestry.com gets the job done at lower cost.

Heritage Quest

HeritageQuest.com is doing things differently. They are offering census images from 1790-1920 on CD-ROM. Each CD available for purchase is a digital copy of a single reel of microfilm. In other words, just as one might order census film number M593-1167 to research Adams County, Ohio in 1870, a CD is available with digital copies of the same census records.

There are no sample images available online so I can't report on the quality of the CDs. There is also no mention at Heritage Quest as to the hardware requirements to view the images. They do include image viewing software on each CD which allows zooming, brightness and contrast control, as well as printing. The CDs are not indexed but Heritage Quest also sells CDs of the 1880-1920 Soundex. These CDs are arranged just as the census is, with each CD matching a particular microfilm roll for a particular census year.

The CD-ROMs are sold individually. Members of Heritage Quest (a $29.95/year subscription) can purchase census CDs for $14.95 each. Non-members pay $19.95. It's hard to recommend Heritage Quest unless a researcher's interest is only in a particular location of a single census year. It would simply be prohibitvely expensive to research multiple generations of a typical family scattered across the country. It would be great for research libraries or genealogy clubs which could afford to purchase the 107 CDs which make up the Ohio 1920 census for example.