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 [log in to unmask] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- 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.