Ancestry.com Inc.
(formerly
The Generations Network
) is a
private held
Internet company. It is based in
Provo, Utah
, United States. It is the largest
for-profit
genealogy
company in the world. The company operates a network of genealogical and historical record websites.
[2]
These websites are focused on the United States and nine
foreign
countries. The company also develops and
markets
genealogical software, as well as other genealogical related services. As of December 2013, the company provided
approximately
12.7
billion
records and had 2.14
million
paying
subscribers
. The website includes 191 million uploaded photos and more than 16 million uploaded stories. These were provided by people who use their website.
[3]
The company operates other websites including Archives.com, Fold3.com, ProGenealogists, 1000memories.com, Newspapers.com, Genealogy.com, MyFamily.com, and Rootsweb.com.
[4]
Family Tree Maker
was created by the company that
advertised
it as "the #1 selling family history software". Ancestry.com operates foreign sites that provide access to services and records specific to other countries in the languages of those countries. These include several countries in Europe (covered by Ancestry.com Europe S.a r.l.
[5]
) as well as Australia, Canada, and China.
On January 1, 1997, Infobases' parent company, Western Standard Publishing, purchased Ancestry, Inc.
[6]
The website was a publisher of
Ancestry
magazine and
genealogy
books. The website was founded in 1983 by John Sittner. Originally, the website was a newsletter about genealogy. The
Ancestry
magazine had been launched in January 1994. Western Standard Publishing's CEO was Joe Cannon. He was the main owners of Geneva Steel.
[7]
In July 1997, Allen and Taggart purchased Western Standard's interest in Ancestry, Inc. That same month, Ancestry, Inc., purchased Bookcraft, Inc., a publisher of books written by leaders and officers of the
LDS Church
.
[8]
[9]
By this time, Allen and Taggart began operating Ancestry, Inc. independently.
[10]
The MyFamily.com website launched in December 1998. More free sites opened up in March 1999.
[11]
MyFamily.com, had one million registered users within its first 140 days.
[10]
The company raised more than
$
90 million in
venture capital
from investors.
[10]
On November 17, 1999, the name of the company changed from Ancestry.com, Inc. to MyFamily.com, Inc. Its three Internet genealogy sites were then called Ancestry.com, MyFamily.com, and FamilyHistory.com.
[12]
Sales for 2002 were about $62 million, and those for 2003 were $99 million.
[13]
The company opened a
call center
in
Provo, Utah
, in March 2004.
[14]
On December 19, 2006, the company changed its name to "The Generations Network".
[15]
The company allowed free access to Ancestry.com at LDS Family History Centers. This service was removed on March 17, 2007. This was because of the lack of a
mutual
agreement. In 2010, Ancestry
restored
its access to its site at Family History Centers.
On July 6, 2009, the company changed its name back to Ancestry.com.
[16]
A year later, Ancestry sold its book publishing
assets
to Turner Publishing.
[17]
That same year,
Ancestry
magazine was no longer publishing after 25 years.
[18]
On November 5, 2009, Ancestry.com became a publicly
traded company
on
NASDAQ
(symbol: ACOM).
[19]
[20]
It's first public offering was at 7.4 million
shares
priced at $13.50 per share. The company had a partnership with
NBC
for a television series called
Who Do You Think You Are?
.
[21]
In 2010, Ancestry.com expanded its location to
San Francisco
, California. The San Francisco office focuses on the technology
aspects
of the company. Their recent works include an
iPhone
and
iPad
app
. In December 2011, Ancestry.com removed the
Social Security Death Index
for people who died within 10 years.
[22]
These records were removed because of
identity theft
concerns. In September 2012, Ancestry.com expanded its international operations with the opening of its European headquarters in
Dublin, Ireland
. The Dublin office includes a new call center for international customers, as well as product, marketing and engineering teams.
[23]
[24]
In October 2012, Ancestry.com agreed to be
acquired
by a private
equity
group consisting of Permira Advisers LLP, members of Ancestry.com's management team, including CEO Tim Sullivan and
CFO
Howard Hochhauser, and Spectrum Equity for $32 per share or around $1.6 billion.
[25]
[26]
At the same time, Ancestry.com purchased a photo digitization and sharing service called 1000Memories.
[27]
In September 2013, Ancestry.com announced its acquisition of
Find a Grave
.
[28]
A month later, the company announced it had purchased the family history records of
South African
genealogy website Ancestry24 which stopped operating in February 2013.
[29]
[30]
Ancestry.com is a
subscription
-based genealogy research website. It has 5 billion records online.
[31]
Most of the records are from the United States. However, records are being added for other countries, such as Canada, the UK, and European countries. Some records are free for anyone to access. Most records on Ancestry.com are only available for paying subscribers. Family Tree Maker (FTM) is advertised as "the #1 selling family history software".
[32]
FTM allows the researcher to keep track of information collected during research and to create reports, charts, and books containing that information.
On June 22, 2006, Ancestry.com completed the
indexing
and
scanning
of all of the
United States Federal Census
records
from 1790 through 1930.
[33]
[34]
The website was nominated for a 2007
CODiE Award
in the "Best Online Consumer Information Service" category.
[35]
The website offers a genealogical
DNA tests
of
autosomal DNA
,
paternal
Y-chromosome DNA
and
maternal
mitochondrial DNA
.
[36]
In June 2014, Ancestry.com no longer sold the Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA testing.
[37]
In the first quarter of 2012, Ancestry had 1.87 million users.
[38]
According to Quantcast, as of April 2012, Ancestry.com reached a rough estimate of 8.3 ? 8.4 million people in the US.
[39]
In the second quarter of 2014, Ancestry had 2.11 million users, for a loss of 52,000 subscribers when compared to the first quarter of 2014.
[40]
Other websites the company owns
[
change
|
change source
]
This is a list of all websites Ancestry.com., Inc. owns.
- FindAGrave.com
[41]
- Fold3
[42]
- Genealogy.com
[43]
- LongLostPeople.com
[44]
- MyFamily.com
[45]
- Newspapers.com
[46]
- RootsWeb
[47]
- ProGenealogists.com
- ↑
"MyFamily.com, Inc. Names Tim Sullivan President and Chief Executive Officer"
. PR Newswire. September 15, 2005
. Retrieved
April 21,
2008
.
- ↑
Peter Wayner (April 22, 2004).
"From Shared Resources, Your Personal History"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
April 13,
2007
.
- ↑
"Recent Business Highlights"
. Ancestry.com. Archived from
the original
on March 3, 2014
. Retrieved
February 24,
2014
.
- ↑
"FamilyHistory.com"
.
Archived
from the original on December 24, 2006
. Retrieved
December 26,
2006
.
- ↑
"Ancestry.com Europe S.a r.l."
Archived from
the original
on February 28, 2011
. Retrieved
February 27,
2011
.
- ↑
"About Western Standard Publishing"
. Archived from
the original
on June 16, 2008
. Retrieved
September 21,
2008
.
- ↑
"Genealogy business booms as boomers seek out roots". Deseret News. April 5, 1997.
- ↑
"Infobases acquires LDS publishing house". Deseret News. July 1, 1997.
- ↑
"Happily joined". Deseret News. April 5, 1998.
- ↑
10.0
10.1
10.2
"Infobase Ventures Portfolio Companies"
. Infobase Ventures. Archived from
the original
on May 28, 2007
. Retrieved
April 21,
2008
.
- ↑
"MyFamily.com begins offering free sites"
. March 11, 1999. Archived from
the original
on November 16, 2006
. Retrieved
December 26,
2006
.
- ↑
"Ancestry.com, Inc. Changes Corporate Name to MyFamily.com, Inc". Ancestry.com. November 17, 1999.
- ↑
Paul Allen (May 20, 2006).
"My Companies: A Chronological View of My Entrepreneurial Endeavors"
. paulallen.net.
Archived
from the original on April 18, 2008
. Retrieved
April 21,
2008
.
- ↑
"MyFamily growing in Utah"
.
Deseret News
. April 13, 2004.
Archived
from the original on April 21, 2008
. Retrieved
April 21,
2008
.
- ↑
"MyFamily.com, Inc. Changes Corporate Name to The Generations Network"
. December 19, 2006. Archived from
the original
on October 8, 2011
. Retrieved
December 26,
2006
.
- ↑
"The Generations Network Becomes Ancestry.com"
. July 6, 2009. Archived from
the original
on October 8, 2011
. Retrieved
August 1,
2009
.
- ↑
Jim Milliot,
"Turner Publishing Buys Ancestry Publishing Assets,"
Publishers Weekly
, March 23, 2010.
- ↑
"Ancestry Magazine Discontinues Publication"
Archived
2011-10-10 at the
Wayback Machine
,
Ancestry Magazine
. Retrieved April 16, 2010
- ↑
"Ancestry.com:
Investor FAQs
"
. Archived from
the original
on November 10, 2009
. Retrieved
February 27,
2011
.
- ↑
"BloggingStocks:
Ancestry.com explores an IPO
"
. Archived from
the original
on May 1, 2011
. Retrieved
February 27,
2011
.
- ↑
"Ancestry.com:
Recent Business Highlights
"
. Archived from
the original
on February 27, 2011
. Retrieved
February 27,
2011
.
- ↑
Sterman, Joce (December 14, 2011).
"Website stops displaying Social Security numbers for recently dead"
. Baltimore: ABC2. Archived from
the original
on January 10, 2012
. Retrieved
December 21,
2011
.
- ↑
Kennedy, John Fintan (July 11, 2012).
"Ancestry.com to create 50 new jobs at international HQ in Dublin"
. Silicon Republic
. Retrieved
August 1,
2013
.
Ancestry.com's Dublin employees will include staff working within management and finance functions, as well as website developers and member service agents.
- ↑
Flanagan, Peter (October 23, 2012).
"Genealogy giant sold for €1.2bn months after Dublin move"
.
Irish Independent
. Retrieved
August 1,
2013
.
It set up in Ireland last year but in July confirmed it would open its European headquarters on Sir John Rogerson's Quay in Dublin, and started taking on around 35 staff from September.
- ↑
"Ancestry.com Acquired by Private Equity Group for $1.6 Billion"
. The Descrier
. Retrieved
October 22,
2012
.
- ↑
"Permira Funds Complete Acquisition of Ancestry.com"
(Press release). ancestry.com. December 28, 2012. Archived from
the original
on January 16, 2013
. Retrieved
March 31,
2013
.
- ↑
"Ancestry.com Acquires Photo Digitization And Sharing Service 1000memories"
. TechCrunch
. Retrieved
October 3,
2012
.
- ↑
"Ancestry.com Acquires Find A Grave"
. Ancestry.com. Archived from
the original
on October 7, 2013
. Retrieved
October 1,
2013
.
- ↑
"Ancestry24"
. Retrieved
October 22,
2013
.
- ↑
"Ancestry.com Purchases Family History Records from Media24"
. Ancestry.com
. Retrieved
October 22,
2013
.
- ↑
"Genealogy Databases Posted or Updated Recently"
.
Ancestry.com
.
Archived
from the original on June 19, 2006
. Retrieved
June 20,
2006
.
- ↑
"FamilyTreeMaker.com"
. Retrieved
March 30,
2013
.
- ↑
"Genealogical site digitizes millions of census records". CNN. June 22, 2006.
- ↑
"Ancestry.com Digitizes Entire US Federal Census Collection From 1790?1930".
- ↑
"Finalists ? The 22nd Annual SIIA Codie Awards"
.
Archived
from the original on January 25, 2007
. Retrieved
January 26,
2007
.
- ↑
"AncestryDNA"
. Retrieved
October 26,
2012
.
- ↑
"Ancestry.com Pulls the Plug on Several Sites"
. Archived from
the original
on July 15, 2014
. Retrieved
July 15,
2014
.
- ↑
Savitz, Eric.
"Ancestry.com: For Sale?"
.
Forbes
. Retrieved
June 13,
2012
.
- ↑
"Ancestry"
. Retrieved
June 13,
2012
.
- ↑
MacEntee, Thomas.
"The Truth Behind Ancestry.com's Recent Subscriber Losses"
.
LinkedIn
. Retrieved
July 25,
2014
.
- ↑
http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2013/09/30/ancestry-com-acquires-find-a-grave/
Archived
2016-05-01 at the
Wayback Machine
</a>
- ↑
Blake Scarbrough (October 21, 2010).
"Ancestry.com and Footnote.com"
.
Footnote.com blog
. Retrieved
January 4,
2011
.
- ↑
"Acquisition of Genealogy.com"
. April 18, 2003. Archived from
the original
on April 14, 2006
. Retrieved
December 26,
2006
.
- ↑
"Frequently Asked Questions"
. Archived from
the original
on January 3, 2007
. Retrieved
December 26,
2006
.
- ↑
"MyFamily.com"
.
Archived
from the original on February 9, 2010
. Retrieved
February 4,
2010
.
- ↑
"Ancestry.com Launches New Web Site Newspapers.com"
.
Ancestry.com Press Release
. November 29, 2012. Archived from
the original
on February 5, 2013
. Retrieved
August 14,
2014
.
- ↑
"Acquisition of RootsWeb"
.
Ancestry.com
. June 21, 2000
. Retrieved
December 26,
2006
.