A Michigan company known for creating databases filled with outstanding historical content is teaming up with the American Antiquarian Society to microfilm and digitize its key collections.

The first phase of the partnership announced June 23 will put family history books from the Society’s renowned collections online and on microfilm for the first time. They will become accessible through a variety of ProQuest’s popular genealogy collections, including HeritageQuest Online.

“ProQuest and the American Antiquarian Society have a shared goal of unlocking this vast resource and making it more accessible,” said Rod Gauvin, senior vice president of ProQuest. “This initiative will preserve and protect a vital source of content, and make it more readily available to patrons, historians, and genealogists at libraries everywhere. We are honored to partner with one of the world’s premier research institutions, and look forward to growing this relationship for years to come.”

Available exclusively from ProQuest, the first series of content from the American Antiquarian Society will help researchers uncover new and additional information about their families.  Located in Worcester, Massachusetts, the American Antiquarian Society’s mission is to collect, preserve, and make available the printed record of what is now the United States from 1640 through 1876.  Their exceptional collection of genealogical material focusing on early North American lines of descent, including French-Canadian genealogies, has long been highly regarded not only by genealogists, but also by scholars working on biographical, historical, and literary topics.

“For nearly 200 years, the American Antiquarian Society has been committed to advancing the study of U.S. history at every level,” said AAS president Ellen S. Dunlap.  “We’re very excited to partner with ProQuest in bringing these valuable resources online and further preserving the historic record of America before the twentieth century.”

ProQuest will provide access to the material through HeritageQuest Online, a unique and continuously expanding collection of genealogical materials that trace family lineage and local American history since the late 1700s.  It combines digital, searchable images of U.S. Federal Census records with the UMI Genealogy & Local History books collection, the Periodicals Source Index, and other valuable content.

Microfilm will be available in ProQuest’s UMI Genealogy and Local History collection.  This collection assembles and preserves genealogies, local histories, primary source materials, and genealogical and local history serials. When complete, Genealogy and Local History will encompass materials related to all 50 states and Canada as well as Great Britain, Ireland and many other countries of immigration to North America, making it an unprecedented resource and a major preservation project.