Ancestry yesterday announced a new multi-year agreement with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the United States to digitize, index and publish tens of millions of NARA records on their platforms over the next five years.
This will be Ancestry’s largest public-private and archive collaboration to date.
During the course of the project, Ancestry will digitize NARA collections that have previously not been available to search and view online.
In the first phase of the project, more than 65.5 million records will become available on Ancestry’s website, including WWII US Morning Reports, draft cards from the Korean War era, naturalization and immigration records, Asian American records, and Native American records, among others.
“We’re honored to take a leading role in preserving the story of America through this partnership with the National Archives,” said Howard Hochhauser, Chief Operating Officer at Ancestry. “Given their role as the holder of the country’s largest and most distinguished collection of records, this collaboration reinforces Ancestry’s commitment to expand accessibility to historical records.”
This agreement builds on more than two decades of collaboration between Ancestry and NARA to preserve, index and digitize hundreds of millions of records. This latest investment also includes enhanced training and development for NARA’s digitization staff.
Yesterday, the two parties convened at the National Archives in Washington, DC for a signing ceremony, capturing the official agreement of the two organizations and Ancestry’s financial commitment to digitizing records.
“The National Archives is the nation’s record keeper, and we hold billions of stories in our collection. Our mission is to preserve, protect, and share those stories with all Americans,” said Dr. Colleen Shogan, Archivist of the United States. “Our collaboration with Ancestry is a great example of a public-private partnership.”
Additional collections and projects will be identified, agreed and announced between the parties per this agreement. The scanning of the first set of records is expected to begin at The National Archives at San Francisco this month.
