Free Genealogy

Several Series A investors joined the Series B funding round, including vSpring Capital and TTP Capital Advisors of Japan. Several other angel investors joined in the B round.

FamilyLink.com is the developer of “We’re Related,” one of the most popular applications on Facebook. We’re Related is used by nearly a million people every day. The company’s flagship social networking site will launch later this quarter at FamilyLink.com.

“Social networking with family and friends is growing faster than any other online activity,” said CEO Paul B. Allen. “Research shows that protecting the family is the top human value in most nations. Technology enables families to keep in touch despite distance, and we think this desire to stay in touch will only deepen in hard economic times.”

FamilyLink.com turned profitable in late 2008 as it was finalizing its fund-raising efforts. The company employs 30 people in the U.S., including in Seattle, WA, Boulder, CO, and its headquarters in Provo, Utah, and has development offices in India and the Philippines.

The company’s goal is to become the global leader in family social networking on all social networks and mobile platforms. The FamilyLink.com, Inc. network of sites became one of the Top 500 Web companies in the world in December 2008, based on Quantcast statistics. Currently the network ranks at #165 based on total monthly unique visitors, making the company one of the fastest growing web properties in the world.

Unlike other social networks, FamilyLink uses family trees and genealogy as a key ingredient in creating engagement in its social networking experience for families. The company owns WorldVitalRecords.com, a popular genealogy subscription site, and later this year will introduce its flagship genealogy web site, GenSeek.com.

“We think GenSeek will become the world’s largest gateway to family history content,” explained Steve Nickle, President. “Combined with our family social networks, it will make it easier than ever before for family members to explore and share their heritage with all of their relatives. Our historic partnership with FamilySearch Catalog will enable us to launch GenSeek.com with links to millions of the world’s most valuable genealogy sources.”

About FamilyLink.com, Inc.

FamilyLink.com, Inc. is the leading social networking company for families globally. It was formed in 2006 by original founding executives of Ancestry.com and MyFamily.com. The company operates several genealogy web sites and has popular applications on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, and Friendster. The company’s We’re Related application is currently the third most popular application on Facebook and has helped users define more than 150 million family relationships. FamilyLink.com, Inc. also operates the AdMazing ad network that represents more than 200 million monthly impressions on high traffic family history and heritage sites. Genealogy partners include Everton, brightsolid, Statute of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Genealogical Publishing Company, FindAGrave.com, Godfrey Memorial Library, and FamilySearch.

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New software designed and available for free download on all Ancestry websites enables participants to take images of original records and create indexes containing key information such as name, age, date, gender and location. Ancestry websites will host those indexes, which will be free to access.

The first Canadian collection that will be available for World Archives Project participants is Ontario, Canada Marriage Registers by Clergy 1896 – 1948.  These important records include approximately 24,000 names captured in marriage registrations compiled by members of the clergy under the Registration Act of 1896.

The World Archives Project is launching through Ancestry websites in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Germany, Sweden, France and Italy to their six million site users and anyone with a general interest in preserving historical records.

In the past decade, the Internet has resulted in an explosion of interest in family history, which has in turn highlighted the poor state of many historical records around the world, many of which are deteriorating faster than they can be saved. The World Archives Project aims both to raise awareness of this fact and also to inspire people to help preserve these precious records.

Preserving historical records is both costly and time consuming. In recent years, governments, libraries, archives, the family history community and websites have worked hard to preserve historical records: Ancestry.ca aims to accelerate the rate at which Canadian records are being preserved by providing the community with the tools it needs to assist with this significant task.

Anyone can participate, and in the process get a ‘sneak preview’ of collections not yet publicly available.

Indexes transcribed through the World Archives Project will be free on Ancestry.ca and participants can spend as much or as little time as they want assisting.

Karen Patterson, Marketing Director, Ancestry.ca comments: “Historical record preservation and access go hand-in-hand so it is important that institutions, businesses and individuals all play an active role to ensure that as many Canadian records are preserved for future generations as possible.

“Due to their age and condition, many Canadian records are in urgent need of preservation and so we are encouraging people to log on, download the free software and start to do their bit to preserve our country’s history.”

Please Click here to access the download page and for instructions on how to use the indexing tool.

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A lot of genealogists have been joining Facebook. However, an article by Brian Stelter published in the New York Times questions the recent changes in Facebook’s terms of service.

Basically, No matter what you say or do, Facebook owns your content - “anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later.”

Brian Stelter claims that many Facebook users are up in arms about the new language.

Read more at:

New York Times Online  - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/technology/internet/17facebook.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

TechCruch  - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/16/zuckerberg-on-who-owns-user-data-on-facebook-its-complicated/

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Straight from the Ancestry Newsletter it seems that Ancestry.co.uk are getting London records and need our help for some PR..

Read on and get in touch with them if you are an Ancestry member..

Ancestry email -

We will soon be launching a major London record collection and we need your ancestors!

Have you discovered ancestors who were born, educated, married or died in London, who ‘did time’ in a London workhouse or who lived in the City between 1695 and 1910?

If so, then we would love to hear from you as we are currently preparing to launch a major collection of historical London records dating back 400 years and are looking for members to share stories of their London ancestors with us.

If you have London ancestors who may fit the bill and would like your family story to be told, please send an email to ancestry@bbpr.com and include as many of the following details that you can:

1. Your ancestor’s full name and all key vital dates available - birth, marriage, death (when, where and to whom)
2. If a London workhouse story, do you know which one and when?
3. If your ancestor went to school in London, do you know which one and when?
4. Anything else of particular interest about your ancestor and their personal story?
5. Do you have any records and/or photos of these ancestors? If so, can you tell us what?
6. Please tell us your name, where you are from in the UK, your contact details including a phone number and a preferred email address.

Finally, we request that you respond if possible by Monday the 2nd of March and also wish to assure you that we will not discuss your story externally without approval.

Many thanks,

The Ancestry Team