Showing posts with label Ancestry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ancestry. Show all posts

Friday, July 12, 2024

Updates on FamilySearch & Ancestry


About twenty years ago, we were blessed to be able to take a tour to Egypt. Of course it was marvelous........ but this post is not a travelog.

Upon my return, and being a genealogist, I got to wondering about Egyptian genealogy. I went to FamilySearch and found just what I expected: about six resources listed in the catalog and most of recent origin. Out of curiosity, in March 2024, I went again to FamilySearch to check the catalog for what's new in Egyptian genealogy.

And by gosh! There were 87 items listed......... 87 potential sources for those with Egyptian ancestry. Two of the listings appeared to me to be in Arabic. There were 29 suggestions for history; six for genealogy and even one for Jewish history. 

 Proving what? FamilySearch continues to seek out the records of the world's peoples and make that information available to one and all. 

Our perennial other favorite, Ancestry, began in 1983 as a book publishing company. (The first edition of The Source by Arlene Eakle was published in 1983.) Ancestry went online in 1996 and has expanded exponentially ever since. Ancestry launched Ancestry DNA in 2012 and to date, over 25,000,000 DNA kits have been registered. 

Between 1997 and 2023, Ancestry added 41,000,000,000 (yes, billion!) records from 88 countries to their website; this averages out to 2,000,000 million per month. Besides adding new records, Ancestry keeps adding new features, all to help us find our ancestors.

Point of this blog post?  If you've not checked BOTH FamilySearch and Ancestry recently, you should.  If you're sincerely seeking answers, that is. :-)  


Friday, November 11, 2022

History of Ancestry

 



1983  --  Ancestry Publishing is founded, publishing over 40 family history magazines and genealogy reference books

1990 - Ancestry publications move to floppy disks

1996 - Ancestry.com is launched, paving the way for online family history

1997 - Ancestry offers family history on CDs (compilations of those who use Family Tree Maker)

2000 - Ancestry launches first census images; completes 1930 census in 2003

2001 - Ancestry reaches the 1,000,000,000 record milestone; Ancestry.co.uk debuts

2006 - Ancestry introduces Australian, Canadian and German sites/records

2006 - Ancestry adds new customer-centric innovations (shaky leaf hints and member trees)

2007 - Ancestry adds more international sites, inc. French, Italian, Swedish and Chinese

2009 - Ancestry reaches the 1,000,000 subscriber mark

2010 - Ancestry offers the first season of  Who Do You Think You Are?

2011 - Ancestry unveils the Ancestry app for iPad and iPhone

2012 - Ancestry hits the 2,000,000 subscriber mark

2012 - Ancestry DNA is launched

2013 - Ancestry announces exclusive agreement with FamilySearch to digitize one billion records
            from its Granita Mountain Vault

2015 - Ancestry releases exclusive collection of U.S. wills and probate records

2018 - Ancestry achieves 10,000,000 people tested via AncestryDNA; 15,000,000 in 2019

2020 - Ancestry reaches over 3.5 million subscribers and 27 billion records

2021 - AncestryDNA tests over 20,000,000 people

2022 - AncestryDNA becomes worldwide



** The above image shows Ancestry's first magazine publication, 1985-2010. These early publications can be accessed via Google Books.