Online Project in UK Could Expand Your Family Tree

In what is being called the biggest undertaking of its kind, UK-based genealogy website ancestry.co.uk is embarking on an ambitious project to make more than 77 million historical documents available online. The digital collection will archive information that had previously been scattered across the city of London, into a single database that users can access for a fee. The wide variety of sources include parish registers, wills, land deeds and school records, painting a comprehensive portrait of daily life in London that dates back nearly 400 years. Beyond its sheer scope – this will be the biggest collection of documents in the UK outside of the National Archives – what makes this venture especially significant is the fact it will enable millions of people to trace their roots back further than ever before. The Telegraph explains:

Because of London’s size in comparison to other cities before the industrial revolution, the organisers believe that as many as 50 per cent of the British population will be able to find ancestors in the collection, as will an estimated 135 million people in the United States, Canada and Australia.

The project is expected to be be completed sometime in 2010.

Telegraph: Internet breakthrough could allow millions to trace ancestors to 16th Century

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