The Ancestry World Archive Project is a great way to help out the genealogy community. Active contributors are eligible for discounts at Ancestry.com. Now, genealogists who use a Mac can participate in the Ancestry World Archive Projects, (just like those with PCs already are able to).
It is nice to give back to the genealogy community when you can. Thousands of people did this by volunteering to be an indexer or arbitrator for FamilySearch’s recently completed project involving the names from the 1940 United States Census. Another way to help out is to get involved with the Ancestry World Archives Project.
The project is a collaborate effort of genealogists from all around the world. The quickest way to explain it is that the Ancestry World Archives Project is a way to help Ancestry.com bring free historical record collections to the public. You can find more details about the project, and its guidelines, on the Ancestry World Archives Project page. There is a list of all of the active World Archive Projects. You could be helping out with one of those!
Today, Ancestry.com posted on its blog that the World Archive Project is now open to genealogists who use Macs. Previously, this project was only open to those who were using PCs. There is now a new Mac version of the keying tool that genealogists need to use in order to participate in the World Archive Project.
If you become an active contributor you can earn some nice benefits. An active contributor is defined as: “participants who index, key and/or arbitrate 900+ records in a rolling 90 day period.”
Active contributors will have access to images associated with the indexes free of charge on Ancestry.com when available. They will also receive a discount on renewal of their annual Ancestry subscription. More specifically, they will get 10% off an annual U.S., UK, or other country specific membership renewal. Or, they will get 15% off an annual World Deluxe membership renewal.
Overall, this means that genealogists who use a Mac, or who use a PC, have an equal opportunity to participate in the Ancestry World Archive Project. This is a nice way to help out the genealogy community. If you get actively involved, you could end up saving some money on your Ancestry.com membership. It is nice when helping others also results in a reward for yourself.
Image by DonkeyHotey on Flickr