As part of the agreement, FamilySearch will digitize and index Canadian census records that Ancestry.ca has acquired. These digitized and indexed records will then be made available to Ancestry.ca members on the company’s website, and in time the indexes will also be available to the public at FamilySearch.org. The images will be free to qualified FamilySearch members and all FamilySearch family history centers.

FamilySearch will deliver images and indexes to Ancestry.ca for censuses from 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1916 Censuses to launch online in 2009. In return, Ancestry.ca will provide images and indexes to FamilySearch for the 1851, 1891, 1901 and 1906 Censuses.

Getting Involved

Interested volunteers can begin helping immediately by registering online at familysearchindexing.org, downloading the free indexing software, and selecting the 1916 Canada Census project. A digital image of a census page will appear. Volunteers simply type in the data highlighted on the computer screen and save it online. It takes about 30 minutes to complete one census page, and volunteers have a week to complete it if need be. Volunteers only need to be able to read, type, and have Internet access to participate.