[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Discontinued Access to Ancestry.com Databases at FHCs

[Rose Ingram]

The following message was posted on a "Polish" list at Rootsweb,

PLUS this Genealogy Blog at Everton Publishers.
http://genealogyblog.com/ancestrycom/another-side-of-the-ancestrycom-removal-from-the-family-history-centers-5877

>>>
To: Family History Center Directors in English Language Areas
From: Worldwide Support
Date: March 16, 2007
Re: Discontinued Access to Ancestry.com Databases

For many years, Ancestry.com has provided free access to patrons of family 
history centers around the world.  Ancestry has informed the Church that as 
of April 1, 2007, it will discontinue this free access to the full 
Ancestry.com service.

Free access through Ancestry.com to the following databases will continue:

1. Index and images for the 1880, 1900 and 1920 U.S. censuses
2. Full name indices for the British 1841-1891 censuses (England and Wales)
3. World War I draft cards indices as created and miscellaneous other 
databases

Free access is likely to be discontinued for the remainder of the 
Ancestry.com databases including:

1. Index and images for the 1930 U.S. census
2. Index and images for the 1901 British census (England, Scotland, and 
Wales)

At this point, Ancestry.com is not offering an option for family history 
centers to independently purchase commercial or library site licenses. 
Patrons, of course, may choose to subscribe directly to Ancestry.com.

Free access to online databases is important and we therefore intend to add 
many new databases to FamilySearch.org. Much of the data preparation will be 
accomplished through the online indexing program available at 
FamilySearchIndexing.org. We encourage you to visit the website to learn 
more.

Volunteers have already begun indexing the 1900 U.S. census and other 
projects. Other censuses and vital record collections will be indexed as 
soon as the 1900 U.S. census project is completed. The more volunteers that 
participate, the sooner access can be provided. Since access to databases on 
FamilySearch.org is free to all, we anticipate that this will be of great 
interest to individuals around the world.  We are also exploring 
opportunities to provide broader access to additional databases from other 
online service providers.

Please inform patrons regarding our plans to provide access to records and 
invite them to help by participating in the FamilySearch Indexing projects. 
We will communicate as more information becomes available. Thank you for all 
that you do on behalf of our patrons.
>>>>>
This may be a good thing considering there are many many transcription 
errors in some databases.  Maybe the Volunteers through the LDS system may 
do a better job of transcribing the records.   I am given to understand 
anyone can volunteer to help at the FamilySearchIndexing.org not just the 
LDS people.  From what I have been told, they are working on English written 
records at this point.

Rose Ingram