FamilySearch and Ontario Ancestors Book Scanning Partnership

FamilySearch International announced a book scanning partnership with Ontario Ancestors. Under the agreement, FamilySearch will provide specialized book scanning services and support volunteers in exchange for access to Ontario Ancestors’ extensive library of historical and genealogical books.

Digitized documents will be publicly available on both websites. Digitization is scheduled to begin by the end of 2020, depending on pandemic restrictions.

The agreement is a first for a genealogical society in Canada. Steve Fulton, UE, and president of Ontario Ancestors, said, “This agreement has no direct cost to us, but the benefits to the society are immeasurable.” Fulton added that the agreement is a direct result of many conversations Ontario Ancestors has had with a number of partners, and it is a key to delivering on the society’s goal of building up its digital presence by utilizing strong partnerships.

Ontario Ancestors is a not-for-profit corporation and registered Canadian charity. It was founded in 1961 with the vision of being recognized as the authority and leader in all aspects of Ontario-related family history research, preservation and communication. Their mission is to encourage, bring together, and assist those interested in the pursuit of family history and to preserve Ontario’s genealogical heritage.

Dennis Meldrum, FamilySearch manager of book scanning partnerships, says Ontario Ancestors has one of the largest collections of family history and genealogy books in Canada. “It will be a privilege to work with Ontario Ancestors to digitize and share their impressive collection of books not under copyright,” said Meldrum.

This is the second time that FamilySearch International and Ontario Ancestors have partnered on records preservation and access. Their first digitization project was the Vernon Directories that began in 2019.

You can search the Ontario Vernon Directories on the FamilySearch website by typing that phrase into the search engine on FamilySearch. There are a total of 24,822 records in that collection.

Related Articles on FamilyTree.com:

What to do to Preserve Those Old Books & Documents?

Dallas Public Library and FamilySearch Team Up to Digitize Collection

FamilySearch Helps Closed Library Digitize Resources

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