Genealogy Insider - FamilyLink

MyHeritage.com Buys FamilyLink

Diane — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:56:57 GMT

Israeli family tree network company MyHeritage has acquired FamilyLink, the developer of family history content sites FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com.

The acquisition doesn't include FamilyLink's We're Related Facebook app, MyHeritage spokesperson Schelly Talalay Dardahsti tells me. FamilyLink CEO Paul Allen won't be joining the MyHeritage team.

MyHeritage will add its first U.S.-based office in Utah, the home of FamilyLink.

The acquisition adds something MyHeritage lacked: the historical records genealogists use. FamilyLink's records will complement the family trees on MyHeritage.com. “We’ll be able to find your mother’s yearbook, your great-grandfather’s will and your ancestor’s immigration record. We’ll do that on a massive, global scale," says MyHeritage founder and CEO Gilad Japhet.

This is MyHeritage’s seventh and largest acquisition since 2007. Read the full press release here.

World Vital Records Extends Free Access

Diane — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:56:07 GMT

Looks like subscription genealogy site World Vital Records has extended its free access another five days, until midnight on August 18, so go get a free registration and have yourself a search. Now you get the weekend!

For more information on World Vital Records' content partners—what records the site has from each partner, compared to what's on the partner site itself—see our free online article.

Access WorldVitalRecords Free Through Aug. 13

Diane — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:59:24 GMT

Subscription genealogy site World Vital Records.com is offering free access to celebrate the addition of the most records in a single day since the site’s 2006 launch.

Get free access from August 11 (that’s today!) through August 13. You’ll still need a free registration, so type your info into the pop-up window you get when you first visit the hope page. (If you accidentally close that window and try a search and then click on a match, you’ll be asked to subscribe, so just go back to the home page and reload it.)

New records include

US newspapers dating from 1759 through 1923, including the New York Times and titles from the West and Midwest
immigration records of more than 150,000 passengers who arrived on nearly 8,000 ships at the port of New York from 1820 to 1832
university yearbooks from the late 1800 to mid 1950 from E-Yearbook.com
Vital records, military records and tax lists from New England and Atlantic states

See World Vital Record's announcement for more details.

Look for our World Vital Records Web guide in the November 2009 Family Tree Magazine, on newsstands Sept. 8. The guide also will be available as a digital download from ShopFamilyTree.com.

Update: World Vital Records has expanded the free access until midnight Aug. 18.

Genealogy News Corral: July 13-17

Diane — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:25:59 GMT

Here are news bits and pieces we turned up this week:

British subscription site FamilyRelatives.com has added the Civil War Roll of Honor listings of more than 276,000 Union soldiers buried in national cemeteries, soldiers' lots and garrison cemeteries.

The East Central Georgia Regional Library's African-American Funeral Program Collection is online (and free) in the Digital Library of Georgia. The 1,000 funeral programs date from 1933 to 2008, with most dating since the 1960s and coming from churches around Augusta, Ga.

The College of Charleston in South Carolina has launched the Lowcountry Digital Library with about 7,500 images (so far) of historical letters, scrapbooks, photos and more.

New social networking site GenealogyWise caught some flak when it announced a contest many members thought encouraged non-genealogical, superficial contributions, then changed the contest but deleted at least one member’s criticisms. See some of the uproar on Twitter here and here. Webmasters are now gathering feedback on a censorship policy. (Update: Here's an apology to the censored member from FamilyLink CEO Paul Allen.)

Online genealogy company (and GenealogyWise owner) FamilyLink has another site coming next week, as hinted on Twitter by CEO Paul Allen: “41% have pictures of ancestors on the walls of their home ... We are launching a new site soon for the other 59%”

Could it be related to this digitization service, announced in 2007 but no longer offered?

GenealogyWise Is Down

Diane — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:45:42 GMT

GenealogyWise, FamilyLink's social networking site that has surged in popularity after just over a week online, is down this morning. We'll keep an eye on it and let you know what we hear.

Update: FamilyLink CEO Paul Allen tweeted that GenealogyWise is down due to a DNS (Domain Name System) problem, which is being fixed, but it'll be awhile before the site is available again.

FamilyHistoryLink to Shut Down Aug. 15

Diane — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:36:26 GMT

Two updates from online genealogy business FamilyLink:

Members of FamilyHistoryLink (FamilyLink’s social networking site lunched in 2007) received e-mailed announcements that GenealogyWise, the social networking site FamilyLink launched last week, will replace FamilyHistoryLink. FamilyHistoryLink will shut down as of Aug. 15; members are advised to download and save any important messages. We wondered last week if this would happen.

More than 5,000 people have signed onto GenealogyWise; they’ve formed 2,360 groups and contributed more than 10,000 items (photos, videos, blog posts, etc.) to the site.

GenSeek, FamilyLink’s Web 2.0 version of the Family History Library online catalog, should launch this fall, according to a FamilyLink announcement posted on Dick Eastman’s blog. About the same time, the GenSeeker Project should hit the road to spread the word to local librarians and historians.

FamilyLink Launches "Facebook for Genealogists"

Diane — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:01:37 GMT

FamilyLink has launched a new social networking site especially for genealogists called GenealogyWise.

Randy Seaver, whose Genea-Musings blog clued us in to the quiet launch of GenealogyWise, has posted some screenshots and thoughts. FamilyLink likely invited a small group to join so the site will already be lively when an official announcement goes out.

GenealogyWise does appear to be buzzing with activity. Similar to Facebook, you create a profile, find friends, set up groups, upload photos and invite people to events. There’s also a discussion forum, blog and video areas any GenealogyWise member can contribute to, a genealogy search (this links you to the World Vital Records subscription site), a store (also goes to World Vital Records) and a chat area.

FamilyLink is also owner of World Vital Records, the We’re Related and MyFamily Facebook applications, WorldHistory.com interactive history site, and several other ventures.

Interestingly, FamilyLink has another genealogy social network, FamilyHistoryLink, launched in 2007 as FamilyLink (it was renamed when the company took FamilyLink as its corporate name). FamilyHistoryLink still wears a beta label and looks dated in comparison to GenealogyWise. I wonder if FamilyLink will phase it out?

Facebook has a well-established genealogy community, with more than 500 genealogy groups and several genealogy applications. Can GenealogyWise compete?

Would you stick with the all-encompassing Facebook, switch to GenealogyWise’s dedicated genealogy network, or use both—or neither? Let us know by clicking Comments below.