Ancestry.com and Footnote.com

Ancestry.com has officially acquired footnote.com.  Here is a link to the footnote.com blog for more information.

*****  ***** ***** ***** *****

Disclosure of Material Connection: I am happy to be an affiliate of ancestry.com and footnote.com. Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.”  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Ancestry.com to Acquire Footnote.com

A portion of the press release reads,

Ancestry.com Inc. announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire iArchives, Inc. and its branded Web site, Footnote.com, a leading American History Web site, for approximately $27 million in a mix of Ancestry.com stock, cash and assumption of liabilities. This acquisition will provide the company with a complementary consumer brand, expanded content offerings, and enhanced digitization and image-viewing technologies.

iArchives digitizes and delivers high-quality images of American historical records of individuals involved in the Revolutionary War, Continental Congress, Civil War, and other U.S. historical events to Footnote.com subscribers interested in early American roots. iArchives has digitized more than 65 million original source documents to date through its proprietary digitization process for paper, microfilm and microfiche collections.”

To view the entire press release click here.

***** ***** ***** *****

Disclosure of Material Connection: I am happy to be an affiliate of ancestry.com. Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.”  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Free Interactive Slave Records Collection

Footnote.com is making available black history records and documents for free with registration.  They have partnered with Lowcountry Africana to make this possible.

 Here is the announcement:

SALT LAKE CITY – July19, 2010 

Today Footnote.com (www.footnote.com) and LowcountryAfricana (www.lowcountryafricana.net) announced the launch of a new free collection of historical records from the South Carolina Department of Archives and History containing estate inventories and bills of sale for Colonial and Charleston, South Carolina from 1732 to 1872. FamilySearch International donated the copies of the microfilm of the original historical documents.

Charlestons role as a port of entry during the Atlantic Slave Trade means many thousands of African Americans may have ancestors who came from, or through, South Carolina. This new collection on Footnote.com will assist African American genealogy research by forming, in many cases, a seamless paper trail from Emancipation to the 1700s.

“Research about African American history and genealogy has often been especially difficult because of limited access to primary source material,” says Henry Louis Gates Jr., Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

Footnote.com is spearheading a revolution in access to the black past by digitizing major portions of the black archive, and making these records available on the Internet. The publication of these records from South Carolina in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is the latest example of their bold commitment to resurrecting the African American past.”

Footnote.com provides an experience where visitors can access historical records and interact with those records and members of the Footnote community.

Visitors to Footnote.com can enhance these records from the South Carolina archives through various activities including:

Creating and sharing webpages about the documents and their discoveries

Adding their own insights and comments to the documents

Uploading and connecting their own photos, letters and documents

Annotating information on the documents, which creates a searchable database

“We are excited that Footnote has joined this collaboration because they offer family historians the ability to turn public records into personal history, said Toni Carrier, Founding Director of Lowcountry Africana. “Nowhere else on the Internet can readers interact with historical records in such a meaningful way.”

“South Carolina has one of the richest sets of early government records of social and cultural history,” said Charles Lesser, Senior Archivist at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. “This new cooperative effort will revolutionize access to an especially important segment of those records.”

To view these South Carolina records, please visit Footnote.com.

About Footnote, Inc.

Footnote.com is a subscription website that features original historical documents, providing visitors with an unaltered view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit http://www.footnote.com.

About Lowcountry Africana

Lowcountry Africana, sponsored by the Magnolia Plantation Foundation of Charleston, South Carolina, is a free website dedicated to African American genealogy and history in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida,home to the rich Gullah-Geechee cultural heritage. The entire content of Lowcountry Africana is, and always will be, 100% free.

***** ***** ***** *****

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post from Lowcountry Africana.  I am happy to be an affiliate of footnote.com. Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.”  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Free Access to Revolutionary War Documents for One Week

Footnote.com is offering free access to Revolutionary War documents this week only.  Take a look!

***** ***** ***** *****

Disclosure of Material Connection: I am happy to be an affiliate of Footnote. Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.”  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Free Access to U.S. Civil War Records-This Month Only

Footnote.com is offering free access to their U.S. Civil War records for this month only.  Some of the records available include service records, pension records, battle maps, photos, and census records.  In order to view the images for free, you will be asked to register and agree to footnote’s terms and conditions.  If you have ancestors that served in the U.S. Civil War, you may want to check this out.

***** ***** ***** *****

Disclosure of Material Connection: I am happy to be an affiliate of footnote.com. Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.”  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Footnote.com’s Recent Additions

Footnote.com adds millions of new documents every month that are found nowhere else on the web.

Here’s what they have recently added:

Interactive 1930 US Federal Census
NY Naturalizations
Indian Census 1885-1940
Civil War Union Soldier Service Records – Missouri
Texas Death Records

Visit Footnote.com – Where real history just might surprise you.