INDIANAPOLIS — The State of Indiana, through the Indiana Commission on Public Records (State Archives) has entered into a contract with Ancestry.com to digitize and eventually post online more than 13 million birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage records for access by Hoosiers. These online historical records, those older than 75 years, will start to become available in 2015, with the completion date expected by the State’s Bicentennial in 2016. This will be the largest online collection of the State of Indiana’s materials ever digitized.
This partnership saves the State of Indiana more than $3.2 million—the cost to index, scan, and make accessible the materials, and would have taken the state more than a decade to complete. It also provides another mechanism to both access the records and preserve the remaining originals from excessive use and degradation, and provides an additional copy in case original copies are destroyed.
