Wednesday 7 August 2013

MyHeritage launches family photos initiative

From MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com):

“Treasure Family Photos” global Initiative launched by MyHeritage

MyHeritage, the popular family history network has just launched a public awareness campaign to highlight the importance of preserving and sharing family photos.

Through its global initiative, "Treasure Family Photos," MyHeritage encourages people to open their boxes of family photos from years gone by, learn more about the people who appear in these photos and preserve them online for future generations on their own family site.

The campaign website, www.myheritage.com/photos , provides photo upload links and useful advice for unlocking clues to the past from photos, explains how to restore photos and care for them, and suggests creative ideas for getting the younger generation interested in their family history. MyHeritage is also permanently doubling its free photo storage allocation to enable users to upload and share more photos on their private family sites at no cost.

Since going live in 2005, MyHeritage users from around the world have contributed and shared family photos on the site, creating the world's largest international collection of old family photos online. The collection includes around 200 million family photos, some dating as far back as the 1840s. The photos that were shared publicly are searchable by name, date, location and keywords via SuperSearch, MyHeritage's powerful search engine for historical records.

Internationally known expert in photo analysis Maureen Taylor, an advisor to MyHeritage's "Treasure Family Photos" initiative, said, "Old family photos do so much more than put a face to a name, they provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives of our ancestors. You can uncover a surprising amount of information from an old photo and illuminate your family's heritage. Therefore it's imperative to preserve these photos and the stories behind them for future generations. I like using MyHeritage to store family photos as its unique social platform makes it easy to share them with relatives and its historical record collections are a great place to learn more about your family story."

"Family photos open a fascinating window to our past, capturing the essence of people, places and events that are dear to us", said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. "Often stored in dusty albums and not shared, they are at risk of oblivion and destruction. Our message is clear - don't risk losing these irreplaceable family treasures. Scan, upload, tag and share them on MyHeritage. They'll add colour and life to your family history, inspire relatives to learn more about their past and preserve your family's legacy for generations to come."

With a diverse user base, spanning every country and continent, MyHeritage is a gateway to a massive variety of family histories from different cultures, religions and ethnic backgrounds. MyHeritage offers a private and secure environment for storing photos and researching family history, and users can choose which information they wish to share.

MyHeritage's sophisticated technology, Smart Matching(TM), fuels new family discoveries by matching profiles in different family trees, enabling users to discover and share photos with other users with whom they share an ancestral connection.

Further details at http://blog.myheritage.com/2013/08/myheritage-launches-global-initiative-treasure-family-photos/#more-32704

COMMENT - looks like family photos are the new battleground! FamilySearch has also just announced a new photo service on its site - see its recent blog post at https://familysearch.org/blog/en/find-photos/

(With thanks to Laurence Harris)

Chris

My new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, is now available from Pen and Sword. My Scottish land and church records ebooks are available at http://www.gen-ebooks.com/unlock-the-past.html, whilst my next Pharos Scottish course, Scottish Research Online, starts Sep 4th - see http://pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=102. Time to smash a few brick walls...!

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