Indexing of US Censuses

Recently, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and their Family History Library and Family History Centers parted ways with Ancestry.com and licensing their databases particularly with the US Censuses.
[2011 Update. The Church and Ancestry are working together again on some things but indexing continues to go forward.

I was sitting in a meeting and momentarily shocked when I heard numerous people referring to how wonderful it will be to have the U.S. Census images indexed. I took a few moments to inform them that Ancestry.com, Heritage Quest and others already had the scanned images and most of the indexes for years now.

It never ceases to amaze me how uninformed people are. I guess I just need to keep learning it and remember that most people know far less than we give them credit for when referring to genealogy and family history. Particularly new developments.

When I shifted from research into sales, account management and client support for research clients it was because I saw so many researchers talk over the clients heads, become offended by their lack of knowledge and unwilling or irritated to talk down to their level. It reminded me that we all need a doze of tolerance, me included, and that we are all on different levels. Some beginners, some amateurs, some novices, some intermediate, some advanced researchers. The desparity between each is also unnerving. See the post on research companies, you may be surprised at the differences.

All researchers and research companies are not created equal so it pays to do your homework.

All for now from the inside, James.