The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:
In a survey last year, top on the wish list of Ancestry.com members was improved images for U.S. Federal Censuses, one of the richest sources of information for family history searches. Improving this collection has been a top priority at Ancestry.com throughout 2009.
Today we’ve launched enhancements for six U. S. Census Collections – in addition to the improvements on six censuses released a few months ago. In all, we’ve gone through more than 200 million records to improve images and many indexes.
Enhanced and clearer images are now available for the 1790-1900 censuses, and indexes have been improved for the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1900 censuses. All of the images have a cleaner, crisper look. And occasionally names can be read that were illegible before—either because they were too light, too dark, too blurry, too faded, or covered in tape, etc.
If you have had a hard time finding your ancestors in these censuses, it’s time to search again. Images already attached to family trees will be automatically updated, so census records saved there can easily be revisited.
What you’ll find:
- Clearer images for 1790-1900 censuses
NEW: 1800, 1830, 1840, 1860, 1870
- Better indexes for 1850, 1860, 1870, 1900 censuses – NEW: 1860, 1870
- 1910, 1920 and 1930 in the works
- Saved records to your tree automatically update with improved image
With twelve improved Census collections — and the remaining three Censuses in the works — now’s the perfect time to dig in or renew the search for the missing pieces in your family story.
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