What's New

What's New

Library and Archives Canada Partners with Ancestry.ca

Partnership allows unprecedented online access to Canadian historical records

For immediate release

OTTAWA, November 10, 2008 - Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce a collaborative partnership with Canada's leading online family history website, Ancestry.ca, which will allow the two organizations to provide unprecedented online access to the most comprehensive collection of Canadian historical records available.

As part of the agreement, Ancestry.ca will digitize and index microfilm and original records held by LAC and make these available to Ancestry.ca members. All of the digitized records will eventually be available free of charge to users of the LAC website.

Mr. Ian E. Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada, comments: "Library and Archives Canada is pleased to be part of this collaborative agreement with Ancestry.ca, which will allow our institution to offer our users access to many of our important collections, some of which have not been previously accessible online."

"It will truly enhance Canadians' ability to fully explore their documentary heritage and will also be of great interest to those around the world with ancestors who immigrated to or visited Canada."

Josh Hanna, Senior VP, Ancestry International, comments: "This is a win-win relationship for Library and Archives Canada and Ancestry.ca as the partnership will enable Ancestry to offer a wide range of Canadian collections to its members and in turn LAC will receive the expertise, experience and person hours that are required for imaging and indexing these records."

"The partnership will create a seamless flow for digitizing and indexing vast Canadian records and will be a huge benefit to family history researchers in Canada who will soon have the opportunity to access more collections than ever before."

Library and Archives Canada is the holder of an unparalleled and inestimable collection of Canadian published materials and archival records. This collection is accessible both online and in its facilities in Ottawa. Ancestry.ca offers access to both Canadian and worldwide genealogy records-seven billion in total-as well as family-tree building tools and community sharing applications.

Ancestry.ca recently launched more than 70 years of fully indexed Canadian Passenger Lists to its members and these records will also be available on the Library and Archives Canada website (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca) in the next year.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION / INTERVIEWS / IMAGES/ CASE STUDIES:

Library and Archives Canada
Pauline M. Portelance, Media Relations
819-994-4589 or 613-293-4298
media@lac-bac.gc.ca

Media Profile
Patrick Erlich / Erin O'Reilly
416-504-8464
erlich@mediaprofile.com / erin@mediaprofile.com

ABOUT LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

The mandate of Library and Archives Canada is to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations and to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, thereby contributing to the cultural, social and economic advancement of Canada. Library and Archives Canada also facilitates co-operation among communities involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge, and serves as the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions.

The Canadian Genealogy Centre (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/) includes all physical and online genealogical services of Library and Archives Canada. It offers genealogical content, services, advice, research tools and opportunities to work on joint projects, all in both official languages.

ABOUT ANCESTRY.CA

Ancestry.ca was launched in January 2006 and has 410 million Canadian names in such collections as the 1851, 1891, 1901, 1906 and 1911 Censuses of Canada, Ontario and British Columbia vital records from as early as 1813, Quebec Vital Records (The Drouin Collection), 1621-1967, Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865 to 1935 and U.S. / Canada Border Crossings from 1895 to 1956.

*Ancestry.ca is part of the global network of Ancestry websites (wholly owned by The Generations Network, Inc.), which contains seven billion names in 26,000 historical record collections. To date more than 7.5 million family trees have been created and 750 million names and 12.5 million photographs uploaded. 6.5 million unique visitors logged on to an Ancestry website in September 2008.*

The Ancestry global network of family history websites - www.ancestry.ca in Canada, www.ancestry.co.uk in the UK, www.ancestry.com.au in Australia, www.ancestry.com in the US, www.ancestry.de in Germany, www.ancestry.it in Italy, www.ancestry.fr in France, www.ancestry.se in Sweden and www.jiapu.cn in China.

*comScore, Unique Visitors, September 2008