Ancestry buys FindAGrave.com

Ancestry (www.ancestry.com) in the US has announced that it has acquired Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com), which hosts some 100 million memorials and 75 million photos.

The following is from the press announcement at http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2013/09/30/ancestry-com-acquires-find-a-grave/:

Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry.com: “Find A Grave is an amazing phenomenon supported by a passionate and engaged community of volunteers around the world. We at Ancestry.com are so excited…honored really…to take on the responsibility of supporting this community. We will maintain Find A Grave as a free website, will retain its existing policies and mode of operation, and look forward to working with Jim Tipton and the entire Find A Grave team to accelerate the development of tools designed to make it even easier for the Find A Grave community to fulfill its original mission to capture every tombstone on Earth.”

Jim Tipton, founder of Find A Grave: “Ancestry.com has been a long-time supporter of Find A Grave. They have been linking and driving traffic to the site for several years. Burial information is a wonderful source for people researching their family history and I look forward to working with Ancestry.com to help continue our growth and accelerate the pace of improvements.”

(With thanks to @acoffin)

Chris

My latest book, Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, is now available from http://www.gould.com.au (print) and http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html (ebook), whilst Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet is available at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Irish-History-on-the-Internet/p/3889/. My next Pharos Scottish course, Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the OPRs, starts Nov 13th - see http://pharostutors.com.

Ancestry adds Ireland, Find a Grave index

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added a searchable index to the holdings of the Find a Grave website collections for Ireland (www.findagrave.com). Ancestry's index gives you fields for name, date of death and place of burial, with an option to then click through to the Find a Grave website page holding the record, where you will find a photo of the relevant stone. The collection covers 1750-2011.

Chris

Scottish Research Online - 5 weeks online Pharos course, £45.99, taught by Chris Paton from 26 SEP 2012 - see www.pharostutors.com
New book: It's Perthshire 1866 - there's been a murder... www.thehistorypress.co.uk/products/The-Mount-Stewart-Murder.aspx (from June 12th 2012)