Genealogy News Alert: Ancestry to Acquire Archives.com

After coming out of the "shadows" with a more public image at RootsTech earlier this year, Archives.com has made a name for itself in conjunction with the 1940 census roll out.  It's not surprising therefore that Ancestry.com has had an eye on the start up. 

Today Ancestry.com announced it's plans to acquire Archives.com in the following press announcement.  The press release I received included an additional note from Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry:

"In some ways, we view our deal with Archives.com as a coming-of-age moment for the online family history category....We very much view the acquisition of Archives.com as a way for us to accelerate our strategy of serving multiple customer segments with well differentiated offerings. I want to emphasis that our plan is to keep Archives.com as a distinct brand and site, to continue to nurture its existing partnerships, and to continue to invest in new content, product and technology."

It's clear now that Archives.com considered it's "customer segment" to be family history newbies, offering affordable pricing and emphasis on more commonly known and available records.  If Ancestry keeps Archives in tact as is the stated plan, Archives will offer Ancestry a unique portal for beginners that can then funnel them up to Ancestry membership.

Do you see this as a positive or negative for the genealogy marketplace?  I look forward to your comments.

ANCESTRY.COM INC. TO ACQUIRE ARCHIVES.COM

PROVO, Utah, April 25, 2012 – Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Archives.com, a family history website, for approximately $100 million in cash and assumed liabilities.

This transaction will enable Ancestry.com to add a differentiated service targeted to a complementary segment of the growing family history category. In addition, Ancestry.com will welcome a team of talented engineers, digital marketers, and family history innovators into the Ancestry.com fold and also gain access to a proprietary technology platform that has supported Archives.com’s rapid growth.

Archives.com is owned and operated by Inflection LLC, a Silicon Valley-based technology company.  Since Archives.com’s launch in January 2010, the site has rapidly grown to more than 380,000 paying subscribers who pay approximately $39.95 a year.  Archives.com offers access to over 2.1 billion historical records, including birth records, obituaries, immigration and passenger lists, historical newspapers, and U.S. and U.K. Censuses.

“Archives.com has built a fantastic and fast-growing business that we think is highly complementary to Ancestry.com’s online family history offering,” said Tim Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com. “We love their focus on making family history simple and affordable, and we are excited to help the talented Archives.com team continue to grow alongside Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, and Family Tree Maker.”

“Family history remains a dynamic and growing online category,” added Sullivan. “Archives.com’s focus is consistent with our mission to help everyone discover, preserve and share their family history, which will help continue our efforts in delivering amazing discoveries to an even broader audience.”

Over the past two years, Archives.com has partnered with multiple well-known family history organizations that have helped build out Archives.com robust collection of family history records. Most recently, Archives.com partnered with the U.S. National Archives to provide free digital access to the recently released 1940 U.S. Federal Census.

“We are proud of the experience we’ve built with Archives.com and believe strongly in its future potential,” said Matthew Monahan, CEO and Co-Founder of Inflection.  “Combining with Ancestry.com positions Archives.com to best capitalize on that potential, pairing complementary visions of the marketplace and the opportunity.  We’ve long admired Ancestry.com’s content and technology and the innovations that the Ancestry.com team continues to bring to market.  We’re excited to see how this transaction expands the reach of family history to an even larger audience.”

Upon completion of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including expiration of the HSR waiting period, Ancestry.com will continue to operate Archives.com separately retaining its brand and website.  Multiple Inflection employees, including key product and engineering executives are expected to join the Ancestry.com team.



About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with more than 1.8 million paying subscribers. More than 9 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 34 million family trees containing approximately 4 billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site, Ancestry.com offers several localized Web sites designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.

About Archives.com
Archives.com is a leading family history website that makes discovering family history simple and affordable. The company has assembled more than 2.1 billion historical records all in a single location. Archives also partners with other leading family history websites to provide a comprehensive resource for researching your family history. Archives.com is free to try for seven days, allowing anyone to explore the benefits of membership without risk or obligation. For more information and to start discovering your family history, please visit http://www.archives.com/.

About Inflection
Inflection is a Big Data and e-commerce startup headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley. Leveraging its proprietary technology platform, the company has built innovative data services likeArchives.com, PeopleSmart.com, and Identity.com. Inflection was founded in 2006 and is backed by tier-one venture capitalists Matrix Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures.

Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or to future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "appears," "may," "designed," "expect," "intend," "focus," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "should," "continue" or "work" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements include statements concerning among other things, the proposed transaction between Ancestry.com and Archives.com, including the consummation and anticipated timing of the transaction as well as the expected benefits of the proposed transaction, and the effects of the proposed transaction on Ancestry.com, our subscriber base or reach.  These forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include a variety of factors, some of which are beyond our control. In particular, such risks and uncertainties include the risk that the transaction does not close when anticipated, or at all; difficulties encountered in integrating acquired businesses and retaining customers, and the additional difficulty of integration when continuing the acquired operation; the adverse impact of competitive product announcements; failure to achieve anticipated revenues and operating performance; changes in overall economic conditions; the loss of key employees; competitors’ actions; pricing and gross margin pressures; inability to control costs and expenses; and significant litigation.

Information concerning additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements is contained under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, and in discussions in other of our SEC filings. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

All WWII Content FREE thru April 30, 2012 at Fold3

If you've got 1940 on your mind now that the census has been released, why not take advantage of free access to WWII content to find out more about your family history?  Here's what Fold3 has to offer:

From Fold3:

In 1940, Americans were recovering from the Great Depression and on the brink of entering a world war. The recently released 1940 U.S. Census gives us data snapshots of people and families poised between two of the most devastating world-wide events of the 20th century.

After you locate someone in the 1940 Census (on Ancestry.com), use that information to find records on Fold3, especially within the World War II Collection. Then build their personal histories with images and other details you've discovered.

Examples of what you might find include:

• "Old Man's Draft" Registration Cards. Any man between the ages of 43 and 62 in 1940 would be required to register in 1942. It's called the "Old Man's" draft because it was a registration of an older generation with skills that would be useful on the home front, not in military action. (Hint: You can also use the addresses on these cards to help you search for people on the census before the index has been created.)
• Missing Air Crew Reports recount riveting tales of planes shot down with and without survivors. Some of these reports include names and addresses of family members back home, as in this example for the men in this crash report.
• War Diaries are official Navy accounts of command units' strategies and actions in battles on land, sea, and air, as well as between engagements.
• European Theater Army Records. Shortly after the 1940 census, millions of Americans were serving in Great Britain and Europe. These records include virtually all administrative and strategic documents relating to U.S. operations in the European Theater during World War II.

There are also many compelling records and images within WWII Photos, the Interactive USS Arizona Memorial, WWII Hero Pages, and Holocaust Records. Pair the people you find in the 1940 Census to their service in World War II through documents, pages, and photos in Fold3's World War II Collection.

Get started at www.Fold3.com

Youth Program at the National Genealogical Society 2012 Family History Conference

(Arlington, VA)–The National Genealogical Society's thirty-fourth annual Family History Conference, The Ohio River: Gateway to the Western Frontier, will be held 9–12 May 2012 in Cincinnati, Ohio. 
A highlight of the NGS 2012 Family History Conference will be the Genealogy Youth Kamp on Saturday, 12 May 2012, at the Duke Energy Convention Center from 8:30 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.  The Kamp, designed to develop an understanding of family history, is intended for youth 8 to 16 years old.  Scouts and 4-H groups are encouraged to participate in the event with their leaders.  The morning will be composed of a variety of hands-on activities including a workshop focusing on genealogical merit badges.  A special program is planned for interested parents, grandparents, and adults who are welcome to attend. 

The Genealogy Youth Kamp is free, but registration is required.  Space is limited.  Go to http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/attendee_registration to register.  After registering, please prepare for the Kamp by following the directions on the NGS Genealogy Youth Kamp web page http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/conferences_events/annual_conference/youth_kamp

Get Some Extra Help Finding Your Family in the 1940 Census

News Release – For Immediate Release: April 4, 2012
Santa Monica, CA. April 4, 2012: The 1940 Census has finally been released and you can now browse the images online. But the waiting’s not over, since you still won’t be able to search the whole census by person until it’s fully indexed in several months.

Help, however, is at hand. Findmypast.com has come up with a way to make your search quicker and simpler – by offering to do the searching for you.

Findmypast.com is the new U.S. addition to the global network of findmypast family history websites, launched in a limited, early form in time for the 1940 Census. Its unique new, customized feature, created for the 1940 Census, is called “We’ll find them for you” and is now live.

All you have to do is to visit findmypast.com, submit the name of the person you’re searching for, plus some extra clues, and findmypast.com will email you as soon as the person’s records become available.

“We’re taking the hassle and delay out of searching”, says Brian Speckart, marketing manager of findmypast.com. “With this new feature, findmypast.com is going the extra mile to help you find your past as quickly and easily as possible.”

While the whole census won’t be searchable for several months, the records of individual U.S. states will be made searchable earlier, one state at a time. A couple of them are likely to be done by mid-April.

Some genealogy sites are offering to alert users simply when a particular state has been indexed. “But we’re going further and finding the particular individual you’re looking for”, says Speckart.

You have to tell findmypast.com in which state the person was living at the time of the 1940 Census. “As soon as that state is indexed, we run a program against the data to find the individual you’re looking for you and then email you the links we find”, says Speckart.

The job of indexing states one by one is being done by an army of volunteers under the banner of the 1940 Community Project, of which findmypast.com is a proud member.

Visitors to findmypast.com will be able to use the site’s new “We’ll find them for you” feature to submit details of the person they want to find.

Supplying the person’s first and last name and state where they were living in 1940 is all that’s required but providing additional clues will help findmypast.com narrow down the search results. Other helpful information includes approximate year of birth, likely birth city, place of residence in 1940 and names of other household members.

The new service isn’t just limited to family members either. Users can submit details of celebrities or other public figures and ask findmypast.com to find them too.
“So, if you happen to know that Marilyn Monroe’s real name was Norma Jean and which state she called home in 1940, we’ll find her for you too”, says Speckart.

MyHeritage releases mobile app for searching the 1940 census and more

Here is a nifty new tool for family history research on the go!

From the MyHeritage press release:
 
MyHeritage, the popular online family network, has announced the ability to search billions of historical records, including the 1940 U.S. Census, on-the-go via a new version of the free MyHeritage Mobile App for iPhone, Android and iPad. The new version 1.2 of the MyHeritage App also searches more than 22 million family trees, helping users with their family history research. 

The MyHeritage Mobile App was first introduced in December 15, 2011 and has since amassed an install base of more than 500,000. In addition to searching historical content, it allows users to take their family tree on-the-go with an attractive display specially suited for mobile devices, capture family moments for future generations and stay in touch with family anytime, anywhere.

As millions of people rush to satisfy their curiosity and access the 1940 US census - one of the most significant sets of historical records ever to be released - MyHeritage is currently the only commercial player offering both a complete set of images from all US states and a preliminary searchable index, available via the new MyHeritage App and on www.myheritage.com/1940census. Access is completely free and no registration is required.

All 3.8 million images of the 1940 U.S. Census, and the initial collection of indexed records searchable by names, facts and other criteria, are now available to explore for free on the MyHeritage App, downloadable from the App Store or Google Play (formerly Android Market). The app can search the entire MyHeritage data collection of more than four billion records, many exclusive to MyHeritage, including birth, marriage, death, immigration and military records, census records, newspapers, yearbooks and much more. Available in more than 20 languages, the app enables family history lovers all over the world to explore their family’s history.

Go Inside the Titanic-Related Holdings at the National Archives in New York City

National Archives Launches New Video Short “Titanic at the National Archives – 100 Years”

Washington, DC. . . On the hundredth anniversary of the Titanic setting sail, the National Archives today is releasing its latest video short “Titanic at the National Archives – 100 Years,” taking viewers inside the Titanic-related holdings of  National Archives at New York City. The 2:41 minute video is part of the ongoing “Inside the Vaults” series:

The film series is free to view and distribute on our YouTube channel at http://tiny.cc/Vaults. These videos are in the public domain and not subject to any copyright restrictions.  The National Archives encourages the free distribution of them.

As the archival repository for the records for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the National Archives at New York City holds records in the admiralty case files related to Titanic, specifically the petition filed by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, as the owner of Titanic, for limitation of liability.  Among the documents are depositions of surviving passengers, blueprints of the ship, claims of loss and photographs.   Often in the first person, they tell the story of the sinking in dramatic detail.  In this video, National Archives archivist Bonnie Sauer, public programs specialist Dorothy Dougherty, education specialist Christopher Zarr, education technician Sara Pasquerello and volunteer William Roaka talk about their favorite Titanic documents in the holdings.  The documents are available to the public in New York City, and many can also be viewed on the National Archives’ online research system, ARC.

Background on “Inside the Vaults”

“Inside the Vaults” is part of the ongoing effort by the National Archives to make its collections, stories, and accomplishments more accessible to the public. “Inside the Vaults” gives voice to Archives staff and users, highlights new and exciting finds at the Archives, and reports on complicated and technical subjects in easily understandable presentations.  Earlier topics include the conservation of the original Declaration of Independence, and the 1297 Magna Carta, the transfer to the National Archives of the Nuremberg Laws, and the launch of a new National Archives user-friendly search engine.  The film series is free to view and distribute on our YouTube channel at http://tiny.cc/Vaults

Parks and Recreation Star Discovers His Family History in Who Do You Think You Are?

I'm particularly looking forward to the next episode of NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? as it features one of my favorite actors from one of my all-time favorite shows, Parks and Recreation.  Watch the following video to see how actor Rob Lowe ventures into his past to discover his family tree.


Learn how to research your family tree by listening to my free podcast Family History: Genealogy Made Easy. Available for free subscription through iTunes. Just search "family history"