Ancestry.com Inc. to Acquire Archives.com for $100 Million

The following is a blockbuster announcement from Ancestry.com:

"Simple and Affordable" Fast-Growing Start-up Adds Complementary Offering to Ancestry.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 like Archives.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.

OGS Publictations To Go Digital in 2013

The Ohio Genealogical Society issued today the following news release:


For the first time, in 2013, OGS Members will have the ability to receive Ohio Genealogical News and/or Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly digitally on the OGS Website at http://www.ogs.org. For those who still want paper, both will still be available through the mail.

MERGER OF PUBLICATIONS IN 2013

For many years OGS Members and Non-OGS people have been given the option to buy two subscription publications: Ohio Records and Pioneer Families and Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal. Beginning in 2013 there will be no need to subscribe to these two publications as they are being merged into the all new Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly with more pages covering all types of material from all eras of Ohio genealogy including Civil War and early Ohio Pioneers. There will be no increase in dues and no more subscription rates to pay!

All OGS members will have the opportunity to use the Ohio Civil War Genealogy Center online at http://www.ogs.org which includes articles, databases and all back issues of OCWGJ; and to use the all new Article Archives.

Eric Johnson, VP of Members Services has named Susan Lee as the Senior Editor of the Publications Committee. The committee is in charge of the merger. Laurel Sheppard will be joining Susan as Assistant Editor of OGS Quarterly. Daniel Reigle will continue to work on Civil War related articles and databases, but has personally decided to step down as an editor into a Civil War Contributor’s role. Sunny Morton will remain Editor of Ohio Genealogy News, Kay Hudson will be joining the Publications Committee as Editor of Special Articles. More committee members will be named in the near future.

Ohio Genealogy News will not be affected by the merger of ORPF, OCWGJ with OGS Quarterly.

Details and more information will be announced shortly.

The Ohio Genealogical Society
611 State Route 97 West
Bellville OH 44813-8813
Phone: (419) 886-1903
Fax: (419) 886-0092

NEOCAG Assumes Leadership in Indexing 1940 Census for Cuyahoga County

NEOCAG (North-East Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogical Society, Inc.) is excited to announce that Cuyahoga County has joined the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project to help index the 1940 U.S. Federal Census! Indexing records from our state will be an essential part of this monumental grassroots effort that will put one of the richest genealogical data sets in the world on-line, complete and free of charge, forever.
This is a FamilySearch project in conjunction with Archives.com and FindMyPast.com It can be done at home on a personal computer. After a simple download of the program, the image is on the screen at the top, and the form to fill in is at the bottom. Indexing can be a lot of fun. You can start and stop any time. There are no quotas or large commitments. A batch, after the first couple, should take 20-30 minutes, certainly less than an hour.
NEOCAG is helping by coordinating the effort in this county to accomplish this project. Jane Riedel, President of NEOCAG and Cynthia Turk, past president, will be working to recruit indexers, train and support indexers and arbitrators, and lend encouragement along the way. Indexers can get started in the FamilySearch.org system now to be ready to go when the census is available to index in April. The secure website with the beginning information is https://the1940census.com/.

If you are already a FamilySearch indexer, you can join the Cuyahoga project by going to https://indexing.familysearch.org/ Go to help, sign in, edit the profile, under Groups click on NorthEast Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogical Society, then save. We hope many of you will join us in this community service project which will benefit researchers for years to come. We look forward to working with you.

Act Now to Avoid Restrictions on Access to SSDI

The genealogical community needs your help now! The Social Security Death Index is in peril.

The press release below was released yesterday. Please visit http://wh.gov/khE and sign the petition. If you don’t have an account at WhiteHouse.gov, see the instructions at http://fgs.org/pdf/rpac_petition.pdf (opens in PDF). Also please pass this information on to your friends, family, fellow genealogists and society members. We need 25,000 votes by March 8, 2012 in order to have our petition reviewed by the White House.

For Immediate Release
February 7, 2012

RPAC ANNOUNCES STOP ID THEFT NOW! CAMPAIGN WITH WHITE HOUSE PETITION

Genealogy Community Responds To Efforts To Remove Access to Social Security Death Index and Other Records

February 7, 2012– Austin, TX: The Records Preservation & Access Committee (RPAC) – a joint coalition of international genealogical societies representing millions of genealogists and family historians – announces the launch of its Stop ID Theft NOW! campaign with its We The People petition posted at WhiteHouse.gov.

Call To Action For IRS To Do Its Job

Each year, fraudulent tax refund claims based upon identity theft from recently deceased infants and adults are filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The current target is the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) or Death Master File since this file, as found on numerous genealogy-oriented websites, could possibly be the source of identity thieves acquiring a deceased person’s Social Security number.

The IRS could close the door to this form of identity theft if, in fact, it were to use the Death Master File for the purpose for which it was created: to reduce fraud. If returns claiming a tax refund were screened against the Master Death File and matching cases identified for special processing, the thief should receive a rejection notice for the filing.

Tax Fraud and Identity Theft: Genealogists Are Not To Blame

The House Ways and Means Committee Subcommittee on Social Security is proposing to completely shut down use of the SSDI by genealogists as well as other industries such as banking and insurance that rely upon its information. Such an attempt is short-sighted and runs counter to the original purpose of the SSDI: to actually combat fraud.

Loss of Access to SSDI Affects More Than Genealogists

The SSDI is accessed by many different companies, non-profits and other entities besides individuals researching their family history. Forensic specialists utilize the SSDI when reuniting remains of military veterans with their next-of-kin and descendants. Law offices, banks and insurance companies utilize the SSDI to resolve probate cases and to locate heirs.

All of these entities would be required to spend more money and more time leveraging other resources of information when the SSDI has served this purpose, uninterrupted, for over a decade.

RPAC Petitions Obama Administration

The We the People petition, now posted at http://wh.gov/khE and accepting signatures, has a simple yet effective mission:

Take immediate steps that would curtail the filing of fraudulent tax refund claims based upon identity theft from recently deceased infants and adults.

No need for lengthy hearings in front of a Congressional committee. No need for filing statements for or against any House action. No need to waste time and effort which could be directed to more pressing national  issues. In fact, the National Taxpayer Advocate in 2011 issued suggestions which do not require additional legislation but can be implemented collaboratively between the IRS and Social Security Administration (SSA) almost immediately in time to impact the current tax filing season.

About Records Preservation & Access Committee (RPAC)

The Records Preservation & Access Committee (RPAC) was formed to advise the genealogical community on ensuring proper access to historical records of genealogical value in whatever media they are recorded, on  means to affect legislation, and on supporting strong records preservation policies and practices.

The genealogical community works together through The Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC), which today includes The National Genealogical Society (NGS), the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) as voting members. The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG), the American Society of Genealogists (ASG), ProQuest and Ancestry.com serve as participating members.

To learn more visit http://www.fgs.org/rpac/.

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Contact: RPAC
c/o Federation of Genealogical Societies
PO Box 200940
Austin, TX 78720-0940
phone: +1 (888) 347-1500
fax: +1 (866) 347-1350
publicity@fgs.org

Feb 13, 2012--Pennsylvania Vital Records Become More Accessible

Many residents of Northeastern Ohio--like me--have ancestors who were born and/or died in Pennsylvania. Compared to Ohio, accessing birth and death records for ancestors in Pennsylvania has been something of a problem.

There's light at the end of the tunnel in this situation. When Pennsylvania Vital Records Bill SB-361 (Act 110 of 2011) goes into effect law on February 13th, 2012 it will make death certificates over 50 years old and birth certificates over 105 years old OPEN records. It will also transfer certificates to the Pennsylvania State Archives once they become open records.

This means that researchers will have access to these records at one place: the Pennsylvania State Archives. No longer will it be necessary to traipse across Pennsylvania to county records offices to obtain these records.

If you want to study up on this developing situation, go to the website for People for Better Pennsylvania Historical Records Access or PaHR-Access.

You might also want to go to the FAQs page where more detail is provided.

More Czech and Slovak Research Guidance

Yesterday, I posted information about the Czech/Slovak Research seminar being presented by John Sabol at Western Reserve Historical Society on March 31. Complete details are available at www.wrhs.org or click here.

Today, I was reminded that the Cuyahoga Valley Genealogical Society is going to have a presentation by Cynthia Smith entitled "Prague to Cleveland." In this presentation, Ms. Smith focuses on the Czech people who settled in the Cleveland area during the late 19thand early 20th centuries. She explores the areas they settled in and their faith communities. This event is on Mar 5, 2012 - 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM in the  Willow Room at the Independence Civic Center, Independence, Ohio 44131. Click here for info.

Also, the Ohio Genealogical Society 2012 Conference in Cleveland will feature "Demystifying Eastern European Research," by noted lecturer and author, Lisa A. Alzo. She will address the the special challenges and frustrations involved in tracing their ancestors back to Eastern Europe. She will talk about the most common myths and misconceptions and how to work around them. Lisa is the author of "Three Slovak Women." The OGS Conference will be held Apr. 12-14 at the Hotel Intercontinental on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic, with Lisa's presentation on Friday, Apr. 13. Lisa has a website at http://www.lisaalzo.com/. For complete details on the OGS conference, go to www.ogs.org and click on The Registration Brochure. Or click here.

Learning Opportunity: Finding Your Czech/Slovak Roots Coming on March 31.

An all-day seminar for family history researchers with Czech and Slovak ancestry is being sponsored on Saturday, Mar 31, 2012 by the Genealogical Committee, an auxiliary of the Western Reserve Historical Society. It will be held in the Norton Gallery of the Society's History Center at 10825 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 4410.

Seminar leader will be John T. Sabol, who will discuss research methods he has used to find his roots, which are both Czech and Slovak. A Cleveland native, writer, and historian, Sobol has written three books plus several church histories and genealogical articles. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International.

The morning session will consist of two presentations stressing the ultimate goal of finding the locations in the Czech and Slovak Republics where your ancestors came from. Since research in these countries is village-based it is of central importance to know your ancestral village. Once this is known, it opens doors to a number of research avenues.

The afternoon session consists of roundtable discussions about finding your ancestral village. Participants will be able to share their successes and failures in hopes of learning from each other.  Roundtable participants are urged to bring documentation or clues regarding their ancestral origins in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Each discussion group will be moderated by a volunteer from the  Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International (CGSI).

For more information, access the detailed flyer with a registration form by clicking here.