In February, 1997, the Archives coordinator asked the archivists for a volunteer to head up a census transcription project with the goal of getting every census transcribed and in the USGenWeb Archives for free access. Ken Hollingsworth answered that call and transcribers were recruited. The original goal was to complete the 1850 census transcriptions, but the overwhelming response from volunteers resulted in all years being included.
Software was developed, CTA, by John Rigdon for 1850, which would produce a standardized text file and a database to be used for future census studies and with a search engine that would point to the actual images that would be online in the Archives. A few months later, Phil Beshear developed CART, which produces text, database, and html, and covers several years. Late 1999, Bill Husler developed CensTrans, geared toward MAC users.
Thanks to S-K Publications who has provided transcription material and census images, and
AllCensus and Blue Roses for census images, and the hundreds of volunteers, census data is being uploaded to the USGenWeb Archives everyday, both text transcriptions, and actual images of the microfilm.
SK Publications is offering group rates for cd purchases, and donates the images for uploading to the USGenWeb Archives. To find out how this works, Click Here
If you would like to join this effort, please visit the The USGenWeb Archives Census Project page.
