This is a MASSIVE moment for FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org) - it has just completed the digitisation of ALL of its microfilm records. Here's the press release:
September 21, 2021
FamilySearch Completes Digitization of Massive Microfilm Collection
Effort makes billions of historical genealogy records freely available online
FamilySearch completes initiative to digitize its 2.4 million rolls of microfilm for free online access.It is a milestone 83 years in the making. Today FamilySearch International announced the completion of a massive project to digitize its collection of millions of rolls of microfilm containing billions of family history records from around the world. The archive containing information on more than 11.5 billion individuals is now freely available to the public on FamilySearch.org.
"We hope that all those who contributed to this milestone in the last 80 years feel a sense of humble accomplishment today,” said Steve Rockwood, the CEO of FamilySearch International. “And we hope the millions of individuals who will discover, gather, and connect generation upon generation of their family members for years to come because of these efforts will have a deep sense of gratitude for the many unheralded contributors who made those discoveries possible."
“It's a game-changer for everybody in the world. So, instead of having to come to the library, people can start accessing these records from home,” said Becky Adamson, a research consultant at the FamilySearch Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Over 200 countries and principalities and more than 100 languages are represented in the digitized documents. Completion of the project makes it much easier for individuals to make more personal and family discoveries.
To explore FamilySearch’s free collections of indexed records and images, go to FamilySearch.org and search both “Records” and “Images”. The Images feature enables users to peruse digitized images from the microfilm collection and more. A free FamilySearch account will be required to access the service.
For further information on the full project history, visit the original announcement at https://media.familysearch.org/familysearch-completes-digitization-of-massive-microfilm-collection/.
COMMENT: A massive congratulations to all at FamilySearch, for a monumental effort on this front!
FamilySearch has evolved massively over the last decade, transforming our ability to use its online resources. Whilst in the past we may have confined our searches to the available databases on the site, there are now many digital microfilms equally accessible through the online catalogue - amongst the records I regularly use, for example, are the Glasgow burial registers and the Irish Registry of Deeds records, which can only be accessed in an unindexed format via the catalogue.
However, despite the announcement, not all of the digitised material will be instantly available to us in our homes - for more on the reasons why, read the following article from the Legal Genealogist herself, Judy Russell, entitled 'Digitization Done', available at https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2021/09/21/digitization-done/.
Chris
My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.
