Company History
1983:
Ancestry Publishing was founded. The company is focused on publishing genealogical book and magazine titles.
1984:
A notable early book of Ancestry Publishing is The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, the 1984 winner of the American Library Association’s Best Reference Award. Through the years this book remains in print, with new editions in 1997 and 2006.
1994:
Ancestry Publishing transforms its newsletter into an advertiser-supported magazine titled Ancestry
1996:
Ancestry Publishing launches Ancestry.com.
1997:
Infobases, Inc. acquires a controlling interest in Ancestry Publishing and its Ancestry.com website
1998:
A companion to the Ancestry.com website, www.myfamily.com, goes live, offering social networking opportunities to families via password-protected private sites.
1999:
Ancestry.com’s holding corporation is renamed MyFamily.com, Inc. Previously, the holding corporation was named Ancestry.com, Inc.
2000:
June: The www.rootsweb.com domain is acquired by MyFamily.com, Inc.
August: Ancestry.com begins to add images of actual federal census records to its site and to create every-name indexes to those records.
September: MyFamily.com, Inc. opens office San Francisco, California.
2001:
January: Ancestry.com adds its one-billionth record to its site.
2002:
March: The United States National Archives and Records Administration releases the 1930 federal census to the public. Less than 24 hours after this release, Ancestry.com adds images from this census to its website. Simultaneously, the process of indexing every name in the 1930 census begins.
May: MyFamily.com, Inc. launches a new website for its customers in the British Isles, www.ancestry.co.uk.
September: Ancestry.co.uk starts creating every-name indexes to the census schedules of Great Britain, beginning with the 1891 British Census.
2003:
January: Indexing of every name in the 1930 census is completed.
April: A&E Networks sells www.genealogy.com, www.familytreemaker.com, and the FamilyTreeMaker software program to MyFamily.com, Inc.
2005:
January: Ancestry.com establishes an International division, which includes a UK-based office and marketing and content acquisition teams.
September: MyFamily.com, Inc. acquires Heritage Makers, LLC and its website for creating scrapbooks, www.heritagemakers.com.
2006:
January: MyFamily.com, Inc. launches a website for its Canadian customers, www.ancestry.ca. At launch, the site includes the only every-name index to Canada’s 1911 census.
April: Ancestry.co.uk finishes indexing British censuses, with the release of an every-name index to the 1841 British census. Previously, Ancestry.co.uk added to its site every-name indexes for the 1851-1901 British censuses.
May: MyFamily.com, Inc. launches a website for its Australian customers, www.ancestry.com.au.
June: Ancestry.com completes work on an every-name index to the 1910 census, augmenting a previous index that only listed household heads. Ancestry.com thus makes every-name indexes to all publicly available United States federal censuses available on its website, a feat duplicated by no other company or organization.
June: TGN establishes a Munich-based office with local marketing and content acquisition teams.
November: MyFamily.com, Inc. launches a website for its German customers, www.ancestry.de.
December: MyFamily.com, Inc. changes its name to The Generations Network (TGN).
2007:
February: TGN establishes a Sydney-based office with local marketing and content acquisition teams.
June: TGN launches two new websites – one for it French customers, www.ancestry.fr, and one for its Italian customers, www.ancestry.it.
August: TGN establishes a China-based office with local marketing and content acquisition teams.
September: TGN launches a site for its Swedish customers – www.ancestry.se.
October: The Generations Network acquired by Spectrum Equity Investors.
The Generations Network launches DNA testing service for its members- AncestryDNA.
2008:
June: TGN establishes a Toronto-based office with local marketing and content acquisition teams.
June: TGN launches a site for its Chinese customers, www.jiapu.com.
2009:
June: The Generations Network changes its name to Ancestry.com, Inc.
November: Ancestry.com, Inc. commences trading as a public company (NASDAQ: ACOM).
December: Ancestry.com, Inc. launches its global family trees website in 12 languages, www.mundia.com.
2010:
March: The first season of the US series of Who Do You Think You Are? airs on the NBC Network. Ancestry.com is the sponsor and provides research for the series.
June: Ancestry.com, Inc. acquires Swedish family history website, www.genline.se.
August: Ancestry.com, Inc. acquires professional family history research company, www.progenealogists.com.
September: Ancestry.com, Inc. acquires iArchives, Inc. and its branded American family history website, www.footnote.com.
November: Ancestry.com unveils Family Tree Maker for Macs.
2011:
January: Ancestry.com unveils Ancestry app for iPads and iPhones.
February: The second season of the US series of Who Do You Think You Are? airs on the NBC Network. Ancestry.com is the sponsor and provides research for the series.
April: Ancestry.com mobile app reaches 1 million downloads.
2012:
May: Ancestry.com acquires DNA assets of Sorensen Molecular Genealogy Foundation, non-profit organization with collection of DNA samples and corresponding genealogical information.
May: Ancestry.com adds 10 Billionth record to website.
April: Ancestry.com acquires We’re Related, LLC, which operates the We’re Related Facebook application.
August: Ancestry.com acquires simple and affordable family history website, www.archives.com.
October: Ancestry.com acquires online photo digitizing company, www.1000memories.com.
