Philadelphia is handing a massive slice of its past to Ancestry.com, signing off on a multi‑year concession that will see roughly 20 million historical city documents digitized and indexed. The collection runs from the late 1600s through about 1950 and includes birth, death, marriage and property records that have long required an in‑person trip to the archives. Under the deal, the images will be searchable on Ancestry’s platform during the contract term, while the city keeps ownership and permanent digital copies. Officials say the goal is straightforward: open up a trove of records that have mostly been locked behind physical file cabinets and appointment desks.
What the contract covers and who pays
The ordinance authorizing the agreement sets a 10‑year base term and puts the bill for digitization and indexing on Ancestry, which the contract estimates will need about two years to get the work done. As laid out in the city’s concession agreement, City of Philadelphia grants Ancestry a license to host the images during the life of the contract, while the city retains ownership of the records and a requirement that it receive permanent digital copies. The agreement spells out secure handling and transport of the original materials and calls for certain online products and classroom resources to be provided at no cost to city agencies and public schools, a small sweetener on top of the core digitization work.
Who can access the records
Once the images and indexes start going live, paid Ancestry.com subscribers will be able to search the nearly 20 million newly indexed Philadelphia records directly on the company’s site. For everyone else, the city is leaning on its library system. People without subscriptions will be able to view the images for free at more than 50 Free Library branches, according to reporting. VISTA.Today notes that this setup follows a model already used by dozens of state and local archives that partner with genealogy platforms. The Free Library of Philadelphia, which already lists Ancestry Library Edition among its genealogy databases, lets patrons access that service on‑site so researchers without personal accounts can still dig into the material at their neighborhood branch.
Legal questions and public access
The timing of Philadelphia’s move drops right into an ongoing legal fight over who actually owns digital copies created under these public‑private deals. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court recently heard arguments in a case testing whether digital images produced for the state are public records or proprietary files that belong to Ancestry. Whatever the court decides could shape how future contracts handle licensing terms, metadata and long‑term access. Open‑records advocates say those fine‑print details matter for historians, journalists and everyday researchers who may want usable copies outside of a password‑protected website.
Timeline and next steps
City Council moved the ordinance authorizing the concession after a procurement process that started with an RFP in February 2024, according to the public record, and the legislation gives the Records Commissioner the authority to sign the agreement. KYW Newsradio reported that councilmembers weighed the benefits of wider access against the concerns that come with letting a private company host public archives online. Officials expect the digitization work to roll out on a schedule that could take about two years to finish. In the meantime, researchers can still use the physical records at the City Archives and other public records locations while staff and scanners work through three centuries of paper.
