The partnership with E-Yearbook.com will allow World Vital Records subscribers access to yearbooks from the late 1800's to 1960, containing rich data and images of the student body members, school traditions, faculty and staff members, clubs, Greek life, ROTC, intramurals, and more. E-Yearbook collection will be offered to World Vital Records on an exclusive basis for genealogy searches.
"We are extremely excited about working with World Vital Records, and obviously with Paul Allen who is a luminary in the genealogy world," said Bryan Michael, President, E-Yearbook.com. "We are excited about this partnership because we believe in World Vital Records, in Paul, and in his vision. The success and growth of World Vital Records has made it clear that World Vital Records is going to be one of the largest and most important companies in this industry."
"I am so excited to have these yearbooks as part of the World Vital Records' collection. They definitely give a rich flavor to history," said Paul Allen, President, World Vital Records, Inc. "I have been so impressed with E-Yearbook.com and their approach to digitizing yearbook archives."
E-Yearbook.com has exclusive content license agreements with dozens of major universities such as the University of California Berkeley, the University of Iowa, the University of Kansas, the University of Michigan, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Texas (Austin). Some of the larger yearbooks that will be part of the collection offered at World Vital Records contain tens of thousands of names with associated images, as well as rich, historical data. For example, the University of Texas at Austin Cactus yearbook collection is the oldest publication on campus, containing more than 114 volumes of rich historical data. The University of California Berkeley published the first Blue and Gold yearbook in 1875.
Many genealogists find great value in using old yearbooks for research. In fact, using yearbooks for genealogical purposes is one of the most common reasons E-Yearbook.com members utilize this resource.
"These yearbooks are the most popular collection in our Center. Young people want to see Grandma, middle aged folks want to reminisce about former girl or boyfriends, and the football games in which they scored the winning touchdown! We regularly have television crews come in to take pictures of people in the news, and we have had the FBI, too!," said Carol Willsey Bell, Genealogist, Local History & Genealogy Center, Warren, OH.
Additional college yearbooks will be included at World Vital Records as they become available through E-Yearbook.com.
