In-Library Ancestry Tool Available at Home Through July 31, 2020
July 2, 2020 — Updated July 1, 2020
Here’s good news for genealogy researchers. Springfield-Greene County Library card holders have been given extended access, from anywhere, to Ancestry Library Edition, the popular online genealogy research tool, through July 31.
According to a company statement, "As provided by Ancestry.com, ProQuest will provide public libraries with temporary remote access to Ancestry Library Edition through July 31, 2020. Ancestry will evaluate the need monthly and will adjust the access dates accordingly."
Normally, card holders can access the library edition of the research site only while in the library branches.
Patrons using their library cards may access Ancestry from thelibrary.org/genealogy.
Interest in genealogical research has soared worldwide in recent years, fueled by popular television shows and an expansion of online tools. Personal Ancestry.com subscriptions range from $189 per year for the U.S. record membership to $299 per year for the combined U.S./International membership.
The ancestry research site begins, “Start searching billions of records and discover your family’s story,” and local researchers have. Ancestry Library Edition is one of the Library’s top five most-used databases, said Renee Brumett, electronic resources librarian. “Last fiscal year saw almost 40,000 searches and over 50,000 documents viewed. And considering it’s internal library use only, that’s huge. Newspapers.com, Value Line and Reference USA are the only ones with higher usage.”
Among the billions of records available, Ancestry.com includes census records and indexes, vital, church, military, public member trees; birth, marriage and death records; tax, criminal, land and wills stories, memories and histories, pictures, city directories, immigration and travel schools, maps and more.
For more information, contact Ask a Librarian, or https://thelibrary.org/contact.cfm. Staff continues to monitor the help site during the Library closure.