LEHI, Utah and SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 08, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ancestry, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, today announced joining the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) Historic Catholic Records Online Project, a unique undertaking to digitize Massachusetts Catholic records from the late 1700s to the early 1900s. The collection includes approximately 10 million names.

The Historic Catholic Records Online Project marks the first time a significant number of sacramental records from any U.S. - based archdiocese have been made available in an online digital format.

“The detailed documents in this collection are a critical resource for researchers, historians, and genealogists, especially when secular records are spotty or lost,” said Brenton Simons, President and CEO of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. “We’ve worked with Ancestry as a trusted collaborator on several projects over many years including making vital records, city directories, and state censuses more accessible and we are thrilled to be working with them again on this new important project. This collaboration will help ensure that a large number of family historians will be able to connect with their ancestors through the information in these records.”

The records within the bound volumes contain several sacraments of the Catholic Church, including baptism, confirmation, holy communion, marriage, holy orders, and the anointing of the sick. They provide a unique snapshot of the microcosm of diverse cultures in Boston and the threads of these cultures across time. 

Images of the oldest records from Boston’s earliest parishes such as Holy Cross and Holy Trinity are available to browse now on AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogy Society’s award-wining website. Transcripts of the records will be available to Ancestry’s more than 2.7 million global subscribers as the project progresses. Images of the records will be accessible through a membership on AmericanAncestors.org.

“We’re honored to participate in this important effort, our subscribers have been waiting for these records a long time,” said Todd Godfrey, Vice President of Global content at Ancestry. “We hope to expand our work in digitizing these important records with Catholic Diocese and Archdiocese across the U.S. and around the world.”

The Boston collection adds to a growing list of global Catholic records available on Ancestry.com, including records from the United States, Mexico, Ireland, and Canada.

To search millions Catholic records available on Ancestry visit www.ancestry.com/catholic.  More information about the Historic Catholic Records Online Project can be found here.

About Ancestry

Ancestry, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, harnesses the information found in family trees, historical records, and DNA to help people gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Ancestry has more than 2.7 million paying subscribers across its core Ancestry websites and more than 6 million people in the AncestryDNA network. Since 1996, more than 10 billion records have been added to Ancestry's databases, and users have created more than 90 million family trees on the Ancestry flagship site and its affiliated international websites. Ancestry offers a suite of family history products and services including AncestryDNA, Archives, AncestryProGenealogists, Newspapers.com and Fold3. AncestryDNA is owned and operated by Ancestry.com DNA, LLC, a subsidiary of Ancestry.com, LLC.

Media Contact:
Melissa Garrett
mgarrett@ancestry.com

About New England Historic Genealogical Society

The founding genealogical society in America, New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) was established in 1845. Today it has a national collecting scope and serves more than 220,000 constituents through an award-winning website, AmericanAncestors.org. Since 1845, NEHGS has been the country’s leading comprehensive resource for genealogists and family historians of every skill level. Today, NEHGS provides constituents with worldwide access to some of the most important and valuable research tools anywhere.

NEHGS’s resources, expertise, and service are unmatched in the field, and their leading staff of on-site and online genealogists includes experts in early American, Irish, English, Scottish, Italian, Atlantic and French Canadian, African American, Native American, Chinese, and Jewish research. Expert assistance is available to members and nonmembers in a variety of ways. The NEHGS library and archive, located at 99–101 Newbury Street in downtown Boston, is home to more than 28 million items, including artifacts, documents, records, journals, letters, books, manuscripts, and other items dating back hundreds of years.

Media Contact:
Jim Power
im.power@nehgs.org