Welcome to the LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA website | Bienvenue au site Web BIBLIOTHÈQUE ET ARCHIVES CANADA

Welcome to the LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA website | Bienvenue au site Web BIBLIOTHÈQUE ET ARCHIVES CANADA

Ottawa, November 10, 2008 – Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce a collaborative partnership with Canada’s leading online family history website, Ancestry.ca, which will allow the two organizations to provide unprecedented online access to the most comprehensive collection of Canadian historical records available.

As part of the agreement, Ancestry.ca will digitize and index microfilm and original records held by LAC and make these available to Ancestry.ca members. All of the digitized records will eventually be available free of charge to users of the LAC website.

The mandate of Library and Archives Canada is to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations and to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, thereby contributing to the cultural, social and economic advancement of Canada. Library and Archives Canada also facilitates co-operation among communities involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge, and serves as the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions.

The Canadian Genealogy Centre (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/) includes all physical and online genealogical services of Library and Archives Canada. It offers genealogical content, services, advice, research tools and opportunities to work on joint projects, all in both official languages.

ABOUT ANCESTRY.CA

Ancestry.ca was launched in January 2006 and has 410 million Canadian names in such collections as the 1851, 1891, 1901, 1906 and 1911 Censuses of Canada, Ontario and British Columbia vital records from as early as 1813, Quebec Vital Records (The Drouin Collection), 1621-1967, Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865 to 1935 and U.S. / Canada Border Crossings from 1895 to 1956.

Ancestry.ca is part of the global network of Ancestry websites (wholly owned by The Generations Network, Inc.), which contains seven billion names in 26,000 historical record collections. To date more than 7.5 million family trees have been created and 750 million names and 12.5 million photographs uploaded. 6.5 million unique visitors logged on to an Ancestry website in September 2008.*

The Ancestry global network of family history websites - www.ancestry.ca in Canada, www.ancestry.co.uk in the UK, www.ancestry.com.au in Australia, www.ancestry.com in the US, www.ancestry.de in Germany, www.ancestry.it in Italy, www.ancestry.fr in France, www.ancestry.se in Sweden and www.jiapu.cn in China.