Census records boost website offerings to five million names for research.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT

A new tool will soon enhance the ability of archivists to help their patrons who are doing genealogical research. Ancestry.com is working to build the most comprehensive genealogical database ever complied by adding 140 years of U.S. Census records, according to the Associated Press.

The web company announced that it has copied complete census records from 1790 to 1930, compiling the only searchable, online repository of the documents that exists. The addition of U.S. Census records to Ancestry.com's database boosts its online archive to five million searchable names.

The U.S. government waits 72 years before releasing original census documents. According to Ancestry.com, copying the material took a team of experts and workers a combined 6.6 million hours. Workers deciphered the hand writing on millions of census forms, then...