FindmyPast invests in Twile

From FindmyPast (www.findmypast.com):

ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC INVESTMENT IN TWILE

Leading family history site, Findmypast, has announced a strategic investment in Twile, creators of the visual family history timeline and winner of two innovation awards at the recent RootsTech 2016, the world’s largest family history event.

The investment in Twile reflects Findmypast’s drive to put innovation at the centre of its development programme. It follows on the announcement of a raft of global partnerships with leading technology providers, such as RootsMagic and Puzzilla, which are designed to offer customers an easy and engaging family history experience.

Annelies van den Belt, CEO of Findmypast, said:

“We are delighted with this partnership with such an innovative company as Twile. The RootsTech awards speak to the creativity of Twile and to win the People’s Choice award shows clearly that this is a product that the public wants. We believe that our partnership offers great value to both companies’ customers. At Findmypast we are committed to enhancing family history stories not just through new records but also through new technologies. Our aim is to make family history as easy and as rewarding as possible.”

Twile was voted “People’s Choice” by the RootsTech audience, as well as finishing on the podium in the judges’ competition. The most popular innovation at the event, Twile enables customers to create amazing family history timelines complete with photos and milestones and all of it totally private. With Twile, you can tell the story of the whole family from the earliest ancestors to the most recent additions bridging the gap between the past, the present and the future.

The agreement will offer Twile’s fast growing customer base access to Findmypast’s rich bank of eight billion records. Leads generated by Findmypast will link Twile customers directly to relevant records enabling them to easily expand their family trees. Together Findmypast and Twile will develop a tool that will allow Findmypast’s customers to automatically display their family tree in a media-rich Twile timeline.

Paul Brooks of Twile said:

"This is a huge opportunity for Twile and we are really pleased to be working with Findmypast. From our earliest conversations with them, it's been clear that they share our mission of making family history more engaging for the wider family, especially the younger generations. Our customers will see this relationship makes Twile better in every sense, while also adding a whole set of features that wouldn't have been possible otherwise."

Chris

For details on my genealogy guide books, including A Decade of Irish Centenaries: Researching Ireland 1912-1923, Discover Scottish Church Records (2nd edition), Discover Irish Land Records and Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html. My Pinterest account is at https://www.pinterest.com/chrismpaton/.

Twile genealogy based timeline website launches

From new website Twile (www.twile.com):

New Website Lets Family Historians Share What They Find
Twile aims to make Genealogy more engaging for the whole family

Sheffield, UK, June 1, 2015 - Twile (www.twile.com) allows family historians to create rich, visual timelines of their family history, made up of milestones and photos from their ancestors’ lives. Genealogy services, like MyHeritage and Ancestry, focus primarily on providing access to historical records. Twile, on the other hand, helps users get a visualization of the information and easily share it with their family.

“We’ve found there is a family historian in pretty much every family, who gathers as much information as they can about their heritage,” said Twile co-founder, Paul Brooks. “Unfortunately, most of their family will never see any of it, either because it isn’t shared or because it’s hidden away in notes and scanned documents that are difficult for most people to digest.”

Through online surveys and conversations with genealogists, Twile found that most family historians keep their research behind website logins, on their home computer or in physical boxes. They typically share their findings verbally and rarely give access to online or offline files.

Paul said, “There is a real danger that all of the family history that’s been uncovered will be lost, unless it’s shared and someone else continues the work. We’re aiming to give genealogists a place to privately share their family history - a way that will make the younger generations want to explore the history and contribute to it.”

The website is completely free to use, allowing users to build or import their family tree and create a timeline by uploading photos or adding milestones - such as birth, marriage and death - for anyone on the tree. Twile Plus is a premium subscription service and is available for £19.99 per year, giving access to a wider library of milestone types.

About Twile
Twile, based in Sheffield and Manchester UK, was started in 2013 by Paul Brooks and Kelly Marsden. Both with young families, they were looking for a way to give their children a record of their early years and a knowledge of their ancestors. While the website is aimed primarily at family historians, it’s also designed to encourage the rest of the family to add their own, more recent content.

Twile launched as part of the DotForge Accelerator in Sheffield UK and has since been backed by Creative England (who bring capital through the Government’s Regional Growth Fund) and a number of UK angel investors, including Lee Strafford, one of the original co-founders of Plusnet, which was sold to BT Group in 2007.

COMMENT: The site also has a dedciated blog at https://twile.com/blog

(With thanks to Kelly Marsden)

Chris

The latest British GENES podcast is available at http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/podcasts.html. For details on my latest book Down and Out in Scotland: Researching Ancestral Crisis, and my other genealogy guide books, please visit http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html.

Save Every Step lifetime memories site to close

Another genealogy life memories/timeline site is to close, this time Save Every Step (www.saveeverystep.com), which was first established in late 2010. Here's the announcement:

Important news from SaveEveryStep HQ

After a great deal of deliberation, we must reluctantly advise you that, due to unforeseen life changing family circumstances, the SaveEveryStep website is to officially close from 1st November 2014.

This is a decision which has not been taken lightly, but is, alas, unavoidable.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your custom. It remains our passion to encourage others to save their memories for future generations, and very much hope that you will continue to do so in another format.

Whilst we are sure that any images or information you have posted on SaveEveryStep will be backed up elsewhere, we would advise you to download anything you wish to before the site closes.

Kindest regards,

The SaveEveryStep team.

Chris

Now available for UK research is the new second edition of the best selling Tracing Your Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians, whilst my new book British and Irish Newspapers is also now out. And please consider purchasing the great new version of Caledonia by The Libations at 79p via www.caledonia2014.com - all profits go to help fund Scottish foodbanks