Discovering New and Updated Ancestry Record Collections

You can also visit the Card Catalog to learn what’s new in the Ancestry record collection database. Sort the list of titles by “date added” or “date updated” to hone in on the latest items.

Remember that the “new” tag next to a collection title only appears for a limited period, usually two months, so you may want to check the listings regularly to see if any updates apply to your areas of interest. 

What Does “Updated” Next to a Collection Title Mean?

In addition to new collections, Ancestry updates an average of another 250 collections each year.  These are equally crucial to family history researchers and are labeled “updated.”  

Several reasons may prompt the updated status to appear next to the title. Here are the most common ones:

• Additional states or volumes have been scanned and added to a collection. For example, the number of states included in the Korean Draft Card collection continues to grow.
• An existing collection may be re-indexed or reprocessed because technology improvements can improve the results, allowing for additional extraction of names or other data. For example, the Freedmen's Bureau Records is a challenging collection of records because it contains a wide variety of subcategories. However, ongoing improvements in technology and indexing processes can help extract more of the data from this rich collection.
• Older records that were private may have had their restrictions lifted, making more documents available to the public. For example, records in the London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1924 collection are required to remain private, or unavailable, for 100 years.  Each year, this database is updated to include records that now fall outside of that 100-year restriction.

Frequently Updated Collections on Ancestry

Collection titles that include “-current” may be updated regularly as new information is released. Here’s a sampling of collections updated throughout the year:

• Global Newspapers.com Marriage and Obituary Indexes
  • U.S., Newspapers.com™ Marriage Index, 1800s-current
  • U.S., Newspapers.com™ Obituary Index, 1800s-current
  • UK and Ireland, Newspapers.com™ Marriage Index, 1800s-current
  • UK and Ireland, Newspapers.com™ Obituary Index, 1800s-current
  • Australia and New Zealand, Newspapers.com™ Marriage Index, 1800s-current
  • Australia and New Zealand, Newspapers.com™ Obituary Index, 1800s-current
  • Canada, Newspapers.com™ Marriage Index, 1800s-current
  • Canada, Newspapers.com™ Obituary Index, 1800s-current

• Global Obituary Collections
  • U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-Current
  • U.S., Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection, 1847-Current
  • UK and Ireland, Obituary Index, 2004-Current
  • Canada, Obituary Collection, 1898-Current
  • Australia and New Zealand, Obituary Index, 2004-Current
  • Caribbean, Obituary Index, 2003-Current

• Global Find a Grave Indexes
  • U.S., Find a Grave^® Index, 1600s-Current
  • UK and Ireland, Find a Grave^® Index, 1300s-Current
  • Canada, Find a Grave^® Index, 1600s-Current
  • Australia and New Zealand, Find a Grave^® Index, 1800s-Current
  • Sweden, Find a Grave^® Index, 1800s-Current
  • Norway, Find a Grave^® Index, 1800s-Current
  • Mexico, Find a Grave^® Index, 1800s-Current
  • Germany, Find a Grave^® Index, 1600s-Current
  • Italy, Find a Grave^® Index, 1800s-Current
  • Brazil, Find a Grave^® Index, 1800s-Current
  • Global, Find a Grave^® Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Curren

• Geneanet Community Trees Index

To learn more about what may have been updated for a specific collection, check the collection description. Details about the update may be at the bottom of the page. For instance, here’s what you’ll see at the bottom of the page for U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016:

What New Family History Research Sources Might You Find?

Whether you’re a long-time Ancestry member or just starting to explore your family’s story, be sure to check out the latest collections and updates. You may discover a brand-new or updated one that helps you learn more about your family or the community in which they lived. Not yet an Ancestry subscriber? Sign up today for a free trial.