The Generations Network

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The Generations Network
Type Private
Founded 1983
Headquarters Provo, Utah, United States
Key people Tim Sullivan, President and CEO[1]
Industry Family history, Genealogy, Kinship and descent
Products Family Tree Maker genealogy software, online subscriptions, related books, Ancestry Magazine
Revenue US$150 million
Employees ~1300 worldwide (2006)
Website www.tgn.com
The Generations Network headquarters in Provo

The Generations Network is an Internet company based in Provo, Utah and the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world.[2] They run a growing network of genealogy and family-related websites, listed below.

In addition to their main sites, The Generations Network operates FamilyHistory.com, which contains basic information for free, but mostly serves as a portal to Ancestry.com.[3] They also publish Ancestry Magazine and formerly published Genealogical Computing. They have a presence in the United Kingdom under the name The Generations Network Ltd., whose offices are located in Hammersmith, London, England and Munich, Germany.[4][5]

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Infobases, Inc.

In 1990, Paul Allen (not to be confused with Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen) and Dan Taggart, two Brigham Young University (BYU) graduates, founded Infobases and began offering LDS publications on floppy disks. Allen's brother Curt and his brother-in-law, Brad Pelo, had founded Folio Corporation, where Paul Allen had worked in 1988. Infobases chose to use the Folio infobase technology which Allen was familiar with as the basis for their products.

The first products were floppy disks and compact disks sold from the back seat of their car. In 1994 Infobases was named among Inc. Magazine's 500 fastest-growing companies.[6] Their first offering on CD was the LDS Collectors Edition, released in April, 1995, selling for $299.95,[7] which was offered in an on-line version in August 1995.[8]

[edit] Ancestry.com

On January 1, 1997, Infobases parent company, Western Standard Publishing, purchased Ancestry, Inc.[9], publisher of Ancestry Magazine and genealogy books. Founded in 1983 by John Sittner as a genealogy newsletter, Ancestry Magazine had been launched in January 1994. Western Standard Publishing's CEO was Joe Cannon, one of the principal owners of Geneva Steel.[10]

In July 1997, Allen and Taggart purchased Western Standard's interest in Ancestry, Inc. At the time, Brad Pelo was president and CEO of Infobases, and president of Western Standard. Less than six months earlier, he had been president of Folio Corporation, whose digital technology Infobases was using. In March, 1997, Folio was sold to Open Market for $45 million.[11] The first public evidence of the change in ownership of Ancestry Magazine came with the July/August 1997 issue, which showed a newly reorganized Ancestry, Inc., as its publisher. That issue's masthead also included the first use of the Ancestry.com web address.

More growth for Infobases occurred in July, 1997 when Ancestry, Inc. purchased Bookcraft, Inc., a publisher of books written by leaders and officers of the LDS church.[12][13] Infobases had published many of Bookcraft's books as part of its LDS Collector's Library. Pelo also announced that Ancestry's product line would be greatly expanded in both CDs and online. Alan Ashton, a longtime investor in Infobases, and founder of WordPerfect, was its chairman of the board. Allen and Taggart began running Ancestry, Inc. independently from Infobases in July 1997, and began creating one of the largest online subscription-based genealogy database services.[14]

In April 1999, to better focus on its Ancestry.com and MyFamily.com Internet businesses, Infobases sold the Bookcraft brand name and its catalog of print books to its major competitor in the LDS book market, Deseret Book. Included in the sale were the rights to Infobases' LDS Collector's Library on CD. A year earlier, Deseret Book had released a competing product called GospeLink, and the two products were combined as a single product by Deseret Book.[15][16]

The MyFamily.com website launched in December 1998, with additional free sites beginning in March 1999.[17] The site generated one million registered users within its first 140 days.[14] The company raised more than US$90 million in venture capital from investors [14] and changed its name on November 17, 1999 from Ancestry.com, Inc., to MyFamily.com, Inc. Its three Internet genealogy sites were then called Ancestry.com, MyFamily.com, and FamilyHistory.com.[18] Sales for 2002 were about US$62 million, and those for 2003 were US$99 million.[19]

In March 2004, the company opened a new call center in Provo as a result of outgrowing their old call center in Orem. The new call center accommodates about 700 agents at a time.[20] Heritage Makers was acquired by Ancestry.com in September 2005,[21] and sold a year later in August 2006.[citation needed] The Ancestry.ca website was opened on January 24, 2006.[22] In March 2006, MyFamily opened a new office in Bellevue, Washington as part of the MyFamily business unit.[23] Encounter Technologies was acquired in April, 2006.[24]

On December 19, 2006, the company changed its name to "The Generations Network."[25] While the company had been offering free access to Ancestry.com at LDS Family History Centers, that service was terminated on March 17, 2007 because of the inability to reach a mutually agreeable licensing agreement between TGN and the LDS Church. Recently, however, service was reinstated at several of the larger Family History Centers.[26]

[edit] Products and services

[edit] Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com is a subscription-based genealogy research website with over 5 billion records online and more being added almost daily.[27] The majority of records are from the United States, though a growing number of records are being added for other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and various European countries. Some of these records are free for anyone to access, but the majority are accessible only by paid subscription.

On June 22, 2006, Ancestry.com completed the indexing and scanning of all of the United States Federal Census records from 1790 through 1930.[28][29]

Ancestry.com was nominated for a 2007 CODiE Award in the "Best Online Consumer Information Service" category.[30]

[edit] Non-U.S. sites

Ancestry.com operates multiple non-U.S.-centric sites which give access to records of other countries:

  • Ancestry.ca provides access to online Canadian history records and global records, including the fully indexed 1911 census of Canada and the Drouin collection. The site was launched in 2006.
  • Ancestry.co.uk provides access to records only from the United Kingdom and Ireland.
  • Ancestry.de was launched in 2006, offering census records, immigration lists, and other records.
  • Ancestry.it was launched in mid-2007, offering census records, immigration lists, and other records.

[edit] Family Heritage Project

This site is set up so that users can order a customized book containing census images, photos and other information regarding a family. The book is leather-bound and contains information up to four generations of a family.[31] As of December 2006, the book is no longer available for order.[32]

[edit] Family Tree Maker

Family TreeMaker (FTM) is advertised as "the #1 selling genealogy software".[33] As with other genealogy software, FTM allows the researcher to keep track of information collected during research and to create reports, charts, and books containing that information. The software was developed by Banner Blue, then purchased by Broderbund. It passed through the hands of The Learning Company, Mattel, and others before coming under its current ownership. At present, it is offered for users of Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista only, with no plans to release it on any other platforms.[34][35] Most features of Family Tree Maker 2005, 2006, and 16 function with Windows Vista, but certain features such as exporting views, books, or trees to PDF, require an update.[36]

Family Tree Maker Version 16 was nominated for a 2007 CODiE Award in the "Best Consumer Productivity Solution" category.[30]

A redesigned Family Tree Maker 2008 was released August 14, 2007, but users have criticized it. They report missing features that existed in previous versions, performance problems, and data loss.[37] [38]

[edit] Genealogy.com

A genealogy research website with some records not found on Ancestry.com, though the total number of records available is smaller. Genealogy.com was acquired from A&E Networks by MyFamily.com in 2003.[39]

[edit] LongLostPeople.com

This site allows you to search public records for living people in the United States.[40]

[edit] MyFamily.com

An Internet website which allows anyone to create a family or group website (e.g., a class reunion site, a club site) within a matter of minutes. A basic template for the site can be manipulated to turn on or off various modules for the main page, but the customization is limited. This may, however, change as they are currently running a public beta "MyFamily.com 2.0".[41]

[edit] RootsWeb.com

A free genealogy community which makes use of online forums and mailing lists to help people research their family history. RootsWeb was founded in 1993 by Dr. Brian Leverich and Karen Isaacson as the Roots Surname List, and quickly grew from there. It is the oldest free community genealogy research site.[42] RootsWeb was acquired by MyFamily.com in June 2000.[43] Users can also upload a GEDCOM of their information for others to view.

[edit] Controversy

There are some who disapprove of the policies and business practices of The Generations Network and the sites it operates and have been catalogued by sites such as BadBusinessBureau.com. As of January 23, 2008, The Generations Network had an unsatisfactory rating with the Better Business Bureau as a result of slow response to complaints.[44]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "MyFamily.com names Tim Sullivan as President and CEO". PRNewswire. 2005-09-15 accessdate=2008-04-21. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-19-2005/0004110060&EDATE=. 
  2. ^ Peter Wayner (2004-04-22). "From Shared Resources, Your Personal History". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807E3D8163AF931A15757C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print. Retrieved on 2007-04-13. 
  3. ^ "FamilyHistory.com". http://www.familyhistory.com/. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  4. ^ "Contact MyFamily". http://www.myfamilyinc.com/default.aspx?html=contact. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  5. ^ "Ancestry.com Expands Its Scotland Census Collection". Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. 2006-12-01. http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/12/ancestrycom_exp.html. Retrieved on 2007-04-13. 
  6. ^ "Backing into a lucrative business". Deseret News. June 11, 2000. 
  7. ^ "Let a mouse guide your scripture search". Deseret News. April 3, 1995. 
  8. ^ "LDS Materials Available Online". Deseret News. August 3, 1995. 
  9. ^ "About Western Standard Publishing". http://www.westernstandard.com/about.htm. Retrieved on 2008-09-21. 
  10. ^ "Genealogy business booms as boomers seek out roots". Deseret News. April 5, 1997. 
  11. ^ "Western Standard sells interest in business magazine to Utah County man". Deseret News. June 4, 1997. 
  12. ^ "Infobases acquires LDS publishing house". Deseret News. July 1, 1997. 
  13. ^ "Happily joined". Deseret News. April 5, 1998. 
  14. ^ a b c "Infobase Ventures Portfolio Companies". Infobase Ventures. Archived from the original on 2007-05-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20070528152733/http://www.infobaseventures.com/our_companies.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-21. 
  15. ^ "Deseret Book parent announces plans to acquire Bookcraft". Deseret News. February 9, 1999. 
  16. ^ "Acquisition of Bookcraft finalized". Deseret News. April 1, 1999. 
  17. ^ "MyFamily.com begins offering free sites". 1999-03-11. http://trends.masie.com/archives/1999/03/110_updates_on.html. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  18. ^ "Ancestry.com, Inc. Changes Corporate Name to MyFamily.com, Inc.". Ancestry.com. November 17, 1999. 
  19. ^ Paul Allen (2006-05-20). "My Companies: A Chronological View of My Entrepreneurial Endeavors". paulallen.net. http://www.paulallen.net/my-companies/. Retrieved on 2008-04-21. 
  20. ^ "MyFamily growing in Utah". Deseret News. 2004-04-13. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595055685,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-21. 
  21. ^ "Acquisition of Heritage Makers". PRNewswire. 2005-09-21. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/micro_stories.pl?ACCT=147509&TICK=MYFAM&STORY=/www/story/09-21-2005/0004112253&EDATE=Sep+21,+2005. Retrieved on 2008-04-21. 
  22. ^ "Release of Ancestry.ca". 2006-01-24. http://myfamily.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=57. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  23. ^ "Bellevue, Washington office opened". 2006-03-23. http://myfamily.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=59. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  24. ^ "MyFamily.com acquires Encounter Technologies". 2006-04-27. http://announcements.eogn.com/2006/04/myfamilycom_inc.html. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  25. ^ "MyFamily.com, Inc. Changes Corporate Name to The Generations Network". 2006-12-19. http://myfamily.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=77. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  26. ^ Dick Eastman (2007-03-18). "Ancestry.com Terminates Free Access in Family History Centers". Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/03/ancestrycom_ter.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-31. 
  27. ^ "Genealogy Databases Posted or Updated Recently". http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/recent.aspx. Retrieved on 2006-06-20. 
  28. ^ "Genealogical site digitizes millions of census records". CNN.com. 2006-06-22. http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/06/22/censusrecords.online.ap/index.html?section=cnn_tech. Retrieved on 2006-06-23. 
  29. ^ "Ancestry.com Digitizes Entire U.S. Federal Census Collection From 1790-1930". http://myfamily.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=63. Retrieved on 2006-06-23. 
  30. ^ a b "Finalists - The 22nd Annual SIIA Codie Awards". http://www.siia.net/codies/2007/finalists.asp. Retrieved on 2007-01-26. 
  31. ^ "Common Questions". http://www.familyheritage.com/Default/Landing/Questions.aspx?sourceid=22212&theme=Default. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  32. ^ "Family Heritage Project". http://www.familyheritage.com/Green/Landing/Welcome.aspx?sourceid=22212&theme=Green. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  33. ^ "FamilyTreeMaker.com". http://familytreemaker.com/. Retrieved on 2009-01-24. 
  34. ^ "What are the system requirements for Family Tree Maker 2006?". http://ftm.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ftm.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1603. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  35. ^ "Is Family Tree Maker available for the Macintosh?". http://ftm.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ftm.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1760. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  36. ^ "Family Tree Maker Update for Windows Vista". The Generations Network. http://ftm.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ftm.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2777. Retrieved on 2007-03-11. 
  37. ^ "An Eleven (11) Year Previously Satisfied User's Review of: Family Tree Maker 2008". http://familytreemaker.chesebro.info. Retrieved on 2008-03-15. 
  38. ^ Family Tree Maker 2008 - "Family Tree Maker 2008 is so awful, that many who tried Family Tree Maker 2008 switched back to Family Tree Maker 16, to an even earlier FTM Classic version or simply decided to switch to a competing product in utter disgust." - Tamura Jones - Modern Software Experience (2008-12-15)
  39. ^ "Acquisition of Genealogy.com". 2003-04-18. http://genealogy.about.com/cs/ukrecords/a/monopoly.htm. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  40. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". http://www.longlostpeople.com/help.aspx. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  41. ^ "MyFamily.com 2.0 beta". http://beta.myfamily.com/. Retrieved on 2008-04-21. 
  42. ^ "RootsWeb.com". Family First. 2005-09-24. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-23. 
  43. ^ "Acquisition of RootsWeb". 2000-06-21. http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=1797. Retrieved on 2006-12-26. 
  44. ^ "BBB Reliability Report for Generations Network, The". Better Business Bureau. http://utah.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=139&bbb=1166&firm=2003190. Retrieved on 2009-01-23. 

[edit] External links

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