ancestry

Ancestry.com set for $1.6B acquisition deal: WSJ

Genealogy website Ancestry.com is to be acquired for $1.6 billion, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

European private-equity firm Permira will buy the firm for $32 a share, the Journal said, citing sources familiar with the deal.

The buying price is a slight increase on the company's $29 a share price at market close on Friday. The $1.6 billion valuation represents a premium of about 40 percent on the company's stock from June, before speculation began about the company being up for sale.

Permira currently has close to 200 investments in its … Read more

Three ways to research your family tree

The April 2, 2012, release by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration of the 1940 U.S. census data has genealogists all aquiver. If you were hoping to plumb the records for details on your family, keep in mind that the initial release of the data will be a challenge to search.

As the National Archives' 1940 census FAQ indicates, until professional and amateur genealogists have indexed the names and other data collected by that census, the only way to find specific entries will be by the "enumeration district" where a given person lived at the … Read more

Grow your family tree with Family Tree Builder

Genealogy comprises one of the largest categories of Internet resources, and it's a popular pastime with millions of people around the world, and more every day. MyHeritage's Family Tree Builder is a free genealogical tool that makes it super-easy to get started mapping out your family history using a variety of resources. It includes many up-to-date features, such as Face Recognition Technology for identifying ancestors in old photographs and the ability to publish your family tree online so others can compare their research to yours. It can import GEDCOM data, too.

We've seen many genealogy tools, but … Read more

Genealogical wonder

Whether you are a professional academic or a family-history hobbyist, GenoPro 2007 can undoubtedly meet your genealogical needs. GenoPro lets you do everything you would expect from genealogy software, such as create family profiles, link individuals, and add such information as birth and death dates. But where GenoPro excels is in the collection of additional metadata.

The best example of this is the program's options to characterize the emotional relationship between two people. The software cuts to the chase, offering such unique descriptions as Violence, Cut-off/Estranged, and Manipulative. Moreover, you are not limited to creating families: the software … Read more

Ancestry.com files for IPO

Popular genealogy site Ancestry.com is going public, hoping to raise around $75 million, according to its SEC filing for an initial public offering submitted Monday.

As a genealogy site, Ancestry.com enables people to research their family history to find out who their ancestors were and how their family tree blossomed. The company started life in 1983 as a book publisher and then jumped online in 1997.

Ancestry.com is run by a firm previously known as The Generations Network, which changed its own name in early July to Ancestry.com to capitalize on the brand name. The majority … Read more

The cheek is in the mail: Ancestry launches DNA testing

Ancestry.com's PR team sent me a few envelopes with cheek swabs in them the other day. These are part of the company's new service, DNA Ancestry, that uses genetic markers to locate you in the family tree of all humanity.

I had visions of my DNA fingerprint landing in a government vault to be used to finger me in crime I have yet to commit, so I did not rush to send off my epithelials. Instead, I got on the phone with Brett Folkman, VP of Ancestry's DNA product, to learn a bit more about the … Read more

Ancestry.com adds DNA genealogy to the mix...dare I peek?

Ancestry.com announced plans on Monday to add DNA digging to its mix of ancestral-sleuthing tools.

And for some, err...specifically me, it may answer an inside family joke as to whether my husband and I are actually distant, distant and, again, I emphasize distant, kissing cousins. We learned on our wedding day, while his mother and my grandmother chatted, that his grandparents and my great-grandparents were from the same small village in Hiroshima, Japan. Hmm, what are the odds?!?

Some things are better left unknown.

For those who are curious about their own genealogy, Ancestry's parent, The Generations … Read more

A very 'forensic' Christmas

This is either a mildly interesting gift idea or a way to ruin the holidays/someone's life.

The DNA Ancestry Project has produced a CD-ROM Participation Kit that gives you information on your family history and heritage. Packages range from $119 to $199, not including shipping. The interactive features allow users to collaborate with other project participants to research his or her own ethnic and national origins back 150,000 years ago.

For a fun C.S.I.-style twist, there's a cheek swab kit included. The DNA Ancestry Project will trade you the stuff you've scraped … Read more