This past week Ancestry.com released a massive new addition to their website. The genealogy research site added 53 new databases and 120 million names to the U.S. Vital Records collection. The news was shared in a press release, on the Ancestry Blog, and posted on the Ancestry homepage with a link to a listing of the new records. All three are covered, with link, below.
An excerpt from the press release provides further details [the entire release can be read here]:
The new additions encompass 23 states, include more than 50 million historical records dating from the 1600s (some of the oldest U.S. records available) through to 2010 and have been made available through partnerships with state and local archives, county offices and newspapers. Many notable Americans can be found in the collections, including John Wayne, Ernest Hemingway, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland and many more.
Interesting facts presented by these records include John Wayne’s birth name as Marion Robert Morrison, changed to the legendary stage name when he began working in Hollywood. “Gone with the Wind” star Clark Gable hailed from the small village of Cadiz, Ohio according to the Ohio Births and Christening Index (1800-1962). The Minnesota Birth and Christening Records (1840-1980) show that “The Wizard of Oz” star Judy Garland’s given birth name was Frances Gumm.
These new vital record collections are available to all current Ancestry.com subscribers and can be found at www.ancestry.com/vitals. As always, Ancestry.com is free of charge for 14 days to all new users.
Ancestry’s Blog put a more personal twist to the addition [read the entire blog post here]:
Did you notice what happened this week here at Ancestry.com? We released over 50 databases containing indexes to millions of vital records from all over the United States. Some of these records date all the way back the 1600s and the most recent of them are from last year. (You can find the complete list by viewing our recently added or updated collections list. Most of these databases were released on 17 Oct.)
I love discovering my ancestors and tracking down their descendants. I climb up a branch of my family tree to a set of 3rd or 4th great-grandparents and then back down again finding all of their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, right down to those living cousins. I enjoy chasing families through census records, seeing where they pop up and what their family looks like decade after decade.
But, birth, marriage and death records provide more concrete boundaries to the lives my ancestors and their families lived. These records provide anchor events that I can use to build complete family histories as I chase my relatives up the family tree and out the branches. If census records are the cornerstone of good genealogy research, then vital records are the capstone.
View and access the new records here. With so many databases to choose from you may have difficulty knowing where to start, which is probably a nice change for most researchers. Don’t forget, new uses can get a 14-day free trial.
Almost all of these “new” databases are indexes that were obtained from their partnership with FamilySearch which are already available free from the FamilySearch site. While the original records indexed by FamilySearch volunteers were obtained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from “state and local archives, county offices and newspapers”; Ancestry cites original data on most of these offerings as “Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah,…Index entries derived from digital copies of original and compiled records.” While I can appreciate Ancestry offering them “free” for 14 days, there are “free” 365 days a year from FamilySearch. Some might consider this advertisement by Ancestry a bit disingenuous.
No Oklahoma records I see. There is never any new information for Oklahoma. …and that is where everyone is for our family.