Programs Allow You To Search At Home

Sun., May 16, 1999

Donna Potter Phillips The Spokes

Heritage Quest, one of the country’s most well-respected genealogy companies, has released two new products destined to significantly change the way family researchers will discover and document their heritage.

Announcement of two CD-ROM programs created a stir last January at the National GenTech conference in Salt Lake City.

The items that will make such a difference are the CD-ROM edition of the 1870 U.S. Federal Census index, and a two-part CD-ROM series that will present both the index and actual census image for all federal censuses from 1790 to 1920.

Until now, genealogists have researched their ancestry using readers and microfilm, usually at a library, said Steven Williams, managing editor for Heritage Quest publications.

Now, with HQ’s new CD-ROM programs, family researchers will be able to access the same data on their home computers in a fraction of the time.

These new CDs have been specially designed with a powerful search engine that will complete a comprehensive search of multiple records using several criteria options. Heritage Quest now offers nearly 5 million entries in 12 states and the District of Columbia on its Family Quest Archives 1870 Census Indexes.

Each indexed CD will cost $39.

Once an ancestor has been located in a census index, searchers will be able to instantly verify the information by viewing the image of the actual census record on the Family Quest Archives Digital Microfilm (that means on CD-ROM, folks).

These indexes are brand new, not the old AIS indexes, Williams said, adding that they have been created and verified by a process with extremely exacting standards. They are the most accurate census indexes available today and the powerful new software makes the discs a snap to use. You can search in several ways and by different categories.

What’s included on the CD census records are the names of the head of house, all males over 50, all females over 70, anybody in the house with a surname different from the head. But not every name in the household is in the index. For example, if you were looking for a 3-year-old son with the surname of Wood in the 1870 Pennsylvania Census, you would have to look at the actual record for every family with that surname. Even so, by using the CD-ROMs, that search would take a fraction of the time that would be spent searching microfilm.

With current technology, we cannot put more on one CD than the roll-to-roll conversion, Williams said. Pennsylvania, for instance, takes 66 discs. So plan to purchase the discs containing only the counties you need, just like for microfilm.

Price for these Heritage Quest Archives Digital Microfilm records (remember, that means CDs) will be $19.95 each, or $12.95 for members of the Heritage Quest Research Club.

Williams said they expect to have the entire set of census records - 1790 to 1920 - available by fall. If you want to purchase the entire set, there are 12,558 rolls of microfilm, and that means there will be that many discs!

To use the discs, you will need Windows 95 or 98, a 486 (but Pentium is better) speed, with 16mg RAM.

Contact Heritage Quest for more information: PO Box 329, Bountiful, UT 84011-0329; or (800) 760-2455. Or visit the company’s website: HYPERLINK http://www.heritagequest.com www.heritagequest.com

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