Indiana partners with Ancestry.com to digitize records

The Indiana Commission on Public Records has approved a contract with Ancestry.com to digitize more than 13 million birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage records, Gov. Mike Pence announced Thursday.

The birth and death certificates date back to the early 1900s, according to a news release, and the state’s marriage records are from 1958 through 2005.

The digitized versions of those records older than 75 years will start becoming available to Hoosiers in 2015, the release said, with completion expected by 2016.

The effort represents the largest online collection of state materials ever digitized, officials said.

“As we head toward the 2016 Bicentennial and celebrate Indiana’s past,” Pence said in prepared remarks, “this initiative serves not only present-day Hoosiers by improving accessibility to records, but also future Hoosiers as they look back at state history.”

The partnership saves state taxpayers more than $3.2 million in indexing, scanning and online access costs, according to the release.

Officials said the effort would have taken the state more than a decade to complete without the services of Ancestry.com, a for-profit genealogy website.

The online records will be available free through the State Archives but not initially. There is a three-year embargo so Ancestry.com can recoup its costs, the governor’s office said. However, the State Archives will be able to provide public access to the records at its Indianapolis location once the records are digitized.

Officials have been working on forming the partnership for two years, according to the release.

Call Star reporter Bill McCleery at (317) 444-6083. Follow him on Twitter: @BillMcCleery01.