This article discusses the representation of NARA’s INS Records in Ancestry’s database portal. Ancestry, the world’s largest and most popular online collection of historical records relevant for people interested in family history, was able to grow into the world’s leading genealogy company through a wide range of partnership agreements with public as well as private institutions and organizations, including the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Ancestry has been able to control the online presentation of and researcher access to large volumes of records containing genealogical information, including records from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). This position gives the company considerable influence on the discovery and interpretation of these public records. The company’s focus leads to a re-contextualization of these records and collections in Ancestry’s portal environment, in which records acquire new meaning primarily as containers for selective genealogical information that can be mined by researchers. Particularly concerning is the ability of the company to provide access to millions of poorly regulated immigration records containing personally identifiable information. This raises fundamental questions about the ethical consequences of outsourcing the development of online access portals to these public records to Ancestry.com and other companies that thrive on mining millions of records containing genealogical information while making the data available through their commercial portals.

本文讨论了 NARA 的 INS 记录在Ancestry数据库门户中的表示。Ancestry是世界上最大、最受欢迎的在线历史记录集合，面向对家族史感兴趣的人们，通过与公共和私人机构和组织（包括国家档案和记录管理局 (NARA)。祖先已经能够控制包含家谱信息的大量记录的在线展示和研究人员访问，包括来自移民和归化局 (INS) 的记录。这一职位使公司对这些公共记录的发现和解释具有相当大的影响力。该公司的重点是对Ancestry 中的这些记录和收藏进行重新语境化门户环境，其中记录获得新的意义，主要是作为可供研究人员挖掘的选择性家谱信息的容器。尤其令人担忧的是，该公司有能力提供对数百万条监管不善的包含个人身份信息的移民记录的访问权限。这引发了关于将这些公共记录的在线访问门户的开发外包给Ancestry.com和其他公司的道德后果的基本问题，这些公司在挖掘包含家谱信息的数百万条记录同时通过其商业门户提供数据。