Ancestry discontinued its World Archives Project in February

I couldn't see the link on the Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) menu for its long-running World Archive Project, but a little digging has revealed why - Ancestry discontinued it in February of this year. 

Launched in 2009, the World Archive Project brought volunteers from around the world to help index collections, with those indexes made available for free to the public, although a subscription was still requried to see the actual records involved. In total, some 407 databases were added to the site as a part of the project - you can see a list of all those involved at https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/world_archives/.

According to Ancestry, in almost classic corporate Borg speak, the reasons for this were given as follows:

Ancestry is committed to preserving and amplifying at-risk history and powering new discoveries for all through new and exciting technology. To amplify our impact in the community, we have reallocated our resources to focus on these new technologies and have made the difficult decision to discontinue the World Archives Project.  

My guess is that AI is being employed more, but would appreciate if anyone can provide a further steer on why this has happened. 

I don't see a thank you from Ancestry in its announcement in February to the more than 150,000 volunteers who participated in the project, but for what it is worth, I'd like to convey my own thanks to you all, your contribution was certainly appreciated.

(Source: https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Discontinuing-the-Ancestry-World-Archives-Project)

Chris

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, 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. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

WDYTYA? magazine announces next Transcription Tuesday event

Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine (www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com) has announced that its next Transcription Tuesday event will be held on Tuesday February 2nd 2021. The magazine will be partnering with FamilySearch, the Addressing Health project from Kingston University, the Voices Through Time project from Coram, and the Every Name Counts project from Arolsen Archives. 

Further details on the event can be found on the magazine's website at www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/news/transcription-tuesday-2021-who-do-you-think-you-are-magazine/.

(With thanks to Rosemary Collins)

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

TNA: Volunteers needed to transcribe Royal Navy service records

From the UK's National Archives at Kew (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk):

Volunteers needed to transcribe Royal Navy service records

The National Archives is currently seeking volunteers to help transcribe First World War Royal Navy service records for a free online database.

Service records for the First World War can provide information about individuals and their lives. However, as crew lists for ships and submarines during this period rarely survive, it is difficult for researchers to determine who was on a ship or in a certain battle together. Royal Navy: First World War - Lives at Sea is a fully-searchable online resource, hosted by the National Maritime Museum, which provides researchers with crew lists that have been reconstructed from transcribed service records. The project aims to facilitate and promote new research into topics such as mortality rates, invalidity, the areas men were recruited from and the type of tradesmen enlisted.

Volunteers on the project are tasked with inputting information from service records into a database. All you need to be involved is a computer, internet connection and a willingness to learn. No prior historical knowledge or training is necessary. There is also no minimum time commitment for volunteers. Whether you can do a little or a lot, all contributions are welcome.

For more information and to register your interest, please contact crewlists@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Royal Navy: First World War - Lives at Sea is a collaborative project between The National Archives and the National Maritime Museum, with the generous support of the Crew List Index Project team.

(With thanks to Clare Kelly)

Chris

You can pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 (out April). Also available, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Transcription Tuesday: Stobs Military Camp WW1 project

One of the projects selected for this year's Transcription Tuesday event is a Scottish based effort to try to find the names of those interned at Stobs Military Camp during the First World War.

Hannah Bell has shared the following about the project with Who Do You Think You Are? magazine at http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/news/transcription-tuesday-2020-stobs-camp-prisoner-records. In her account she describes the projhect as follows:

When the First World War broke out in 1914, German and Austrian civilians living in Britain were seen as ‘the enemy within’.

Many were interned in detention camps, either because they were considered a threat to national security or to protect them from hostile citizens.

Foreign nationals were interned at Stobs from the start of the war.

Over the next four years, they were joined by captured soldiers and sailors, and eventually it became a prisoner of war camp.

Records from 1916 list 4,616 prisoners, of whom 1,829 were soldiers, 504 sailors and 2,283 civilians.

Of the civilians, 2,098 were Germans, 181 Austrians, 3 Turks and 1 Bulgarian.

After years of research, we have finally been presented with the opportunity of learning the names of the German prisoners at Stobs both civilian and military.

I am very much looking forward to seeing the results of this project; my own project The Ruhleben Story (http://ruhleben.tripod.com), is something of a mirror image of it, in tracing civilian Scottish, British and former British Empire based citizens in a German POW camp, erected for similar reasons.

For further information on how to take part in the transcription effort on Tuesday 4th February, please visit http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/blog/transcription-tuesday-2020-stobs-camp-project. For more on the Stobs Military Camp visit http://www.stobscamp.org.


There will be three other projects available on Transcription Tuesday also:

FamilySearch: Parish Registers
Discover the lives of people who were baptised, married and buried outside the Church of England by transcribing nonconformist records from Essex, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Northumberland and Norfolk.

Ancestry: West Midlands Police Records
Transcribe detailed records of police officers who served across the West Midlands from the 1860s to the 1940s for Ancestry's free World Archives Project.

Royal Navy First World War Lives at Sea
Help create a database of First World War Royal Navy records with this partnership between The National Archives and the National Maritime Museum.

For further details visit http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/transcriptiontuesday

Chris

You can pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 (out April). Also available, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

WDYTYA announces Transcription Tuesday on Feb 4th

From Who Do You Think You Are? magazine (www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com):

For the fourth year running, Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine will be running its Transcription Tuesday event, encouraging family historians to take part in a transcription project and give something back to the hobby they love.

Transcription Tuesday 2020 will be held on Tuesday 4th February. Four projects have been chosen this year including projects transcribing West Midlands police records, Royal Navy service records from the First World War and German internees at a British internment camp.

This year, FamilySearch are uploading a range of non-conformist registers specifically for Transcription Tuesday. Thousands of family historians took part last year and it is hoped that even more will join in this year for a global ‘transcribathon’. Although most transcribers will be working from home, this year, for the first time, volunteers will be able to join others and get support in their work at various sites.

The National Archives in Kew, Surrey, will be hosting the Royal Navy First World War project (free ticketed event) while the Internment Research Centre, based at the Heritage Hub in Hawick will be open to transcribers all day. Some Family History Centers will also be hosting Transcription Tuesday events.

To find out more information, visit: http://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/transcriptiontuesday

(With thanks to Sarah Williams) Chris You can pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 (out April). Also available, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.