More information on the US Census to be online. In communicating
with some of the people involved at HQ, they have discovered several
thousands of people who were missed in previous indexing of
information in several census schedules. They are very thorough
in all work they are producing. There will be more to come later.
Ruth Ann Messick in Saratoga
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Announcement appeared in Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
Vol. 5 No. 28 - July 8, 2000 announces:
Entire 1790-1920 U.S. Census to be Available Online Soon
One of the dreams of genealogists is about to come true: the
ability to view any or all of the original census records by using
a home computer. You no longer need to travel to a distant library
or Family History Center during the hours they are open. Soon you
will be able to view the same images at any hour of the day or
night while comfortably seated at home.
This isn't the first online census database. A few smaller such
databases have already appeared. However, these were quite small
in comparison, featuring only the 1790 records or census records
of particular cities or counties for a few years. Now SierraHome
and their rather newly acquired Heritage Quest division have
announced that they will be placing all the U.S. Census records
online, from 1790 through 1920. Best of all, this database will
contain actual images of the original records in the enumerators'
handwriting. Such records are much more accurate than the more
error-prone transcriptions made by clerk typists.
One fact about this new database that fascinates me is its size:
It will be about 3.5 terabytes on the day it launches, making it
the largest single database on the Internet. (A terabyte is 1,000
gigabytes or one million megabytes.) The database is expected to
grow to 10 terabytes as more data is added.
Here is an extract from the announcement from Generations and
Heritage Quest:
GenealogyDatabase.com
The World's Largest Online Family History Resource
Breaking News -- What's the Scoop?
This fall, SierraHome's Generations brand and Heritage Quest
will be launching GenealogyDatabase.com with the very first
online collection of all U.S. Census images from 1790 - 1920.
(1920 was the last year released to the public because of the
72-year waiting period. The 1930 census will be released on
April 1, 2002.) Heritage Quest is also working on indexes for
each year, and has already completed 1790, 1800 and 1870.
This is a monumental step forward for online genealogy
resources and will be of great interest to serious genealogy
enthusiasts and newbies alike. The census is widely regarded
as the most important primary source for tracing one's family
heritage. GenealogyDatabase.com will be the largest
collection of primary source documents on the Web, many of
which will be searchable through Heritage Quest's painstaking
efforts to extract the names into indexes which link directly
to the digitally enhanced image pages.
GenealogyDatabase.com will also be accessible through
HeritageQuest.com and SierraHome.com. The site will be
subscription-based, comparable to other genealogy sites
currently online. We will update you on the pricing model
when it becomes available. The most important thing to keep
in mind is that GenealogyDatabase.com will be the ONLY site
offering the entire collection of U.S. Federal Census images
for people to access from the comfort of home.
Just How Big is This?
The sheer magnitude of the site is newsworthy in its own
right; it will be the world's largest known web-enabled
database. We will be posting approximately 3.5 terabytes of
images and data at launch, with a goal of 10 terabytes of
Heritage Quest resources being posted in the foreseeable
future. To put things in perspective, Microsoft's famed
Terrabase Server of spy satellite images is 1.5 terabytes. In
July 1999, Nature Magazine estimated the basic data in the
entire World Wide Web to constitute roughly 15 terabytes, so
this site is breaking new ground both in terms of size and
importance to family history enthusiasts everywhere.
The Census data alone is the equivalent of 12,555 rolls of
microfilm and sells for $250,000. There will be 10 million
images of Census pages at launch, representing more than 500
million Americans. Heritage Quest is committed to indexing
new names at the astounding rate of 500,000 per week!
Anything else I should I know about?
Furthermore, we intend to make this a living Web community.
One feature we're working on for the site will be a "sticky
note" technology where members can leave messages behind for
others looking at the same page of the census. Keep in mind
that census entries were done door-to-door, meaning that
families listed on the same census page were neighbors. Many
genealogists believe it's essential to research in clusters,
since people simply didn't move as often or as far back in the
18th and 19th centuries. GenealogyDatabase.com members can
leave behind messages requesting information, pictures, or
even correct errors that they know to exist on that particular
census page. NOTE: This "sticky note" technology will not be
available at launch, so genealogists should check back because
we will be adding new names and features each week once the
site launches! With a site this huge, we will be introducing
new innovations in stages.
Give me the nitty gritty details.
At launch, GenealogyDatabase.com will offer:
* Digital images of the U.S. Census from 1790 - 1920.
* The most accurate indexes for the years 1790, 1800, and 1870,
which will let site members type in the names of ancestors and
link directly to the digital images of handwritten census
pages. (Keep in mind that these are fresh extractions of the
census. It was determined that existing indexes were filled
with errors, which was unacceptable to us. Heritage Quest has
recently completed fresh extractions of these three census
years. Other years are in the works.)
* Approximately 3.5 Terabytes of images and data - possibly the
largest single database on the Internet, and definitely the
largest genealogy database in terms of size
And much more to come. . . Heritage Quest is the world's
largest private supplier of genealogical data and we fully
intend to bring these resources online to aid people in their
quest to discover their family heritage.
Who's Creating this Monumental New Web Resource?
Heritage Quest is the world's largest private commercial
supplier of genealogy data. In 1999, Havas Interactive
acquired Heritage Quest, which became a part of SierraHome and
the Generations line of CD-ROM and online genealogy tools.
Heritage Quest's vast collection of family history data
includes more than 250,000 titles of books, CDs, microfilm and
the nationally acclaimed Heritage Quest magazine. These can
be ordered online at www.heritagequest.com or by phone at 800-
760-2455.
The "sticky note" feature looks particularly appealing. Even the
original census records had errors; now genealogists will be able
to append notes containing corrections or comments to individual
census entries.
You might want to keep an eye on the Web site at:
http://GenealogyDatabase.com. There's not much available at that
URL today, but that will change sometime later this year. I expect
to write more about this new U.S. Census database as the launch
date draws near.
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