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PROVO, Utah, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- MyFamily.com, Inc., the leading network for connecting families with their histories and one another, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of BigHugs.com, one of the most widely recognized people-finder services in the United States. This acquisition is a strategic step forward for MyFamily, extending its brand to a wider audience and enhancing its product offering to existing customers.

BigHugs, based in Ft. Myers, Florida, has been perfecting family locator investigative research for the past twelve years. Specializing in live family reunions on broadcast television, BigHugs has reunited thousands of loved ones on hundreds of television shows over the past decade. Most recently, on Friday, December 6th, 48 Hours Investigates, a top rated CBS television network program, featured the story of an emotional family reunion uncovered by BigHugs.

"Our business is centered on connecting and strengthening families," said Tom Stockham, president and chief executive officer of MyFamily.com, Inc. "BigHugs is a great addition to our service offering. By integrating the BigHugs people-finder service with the outstanding family history and private family website products already offered through the MyFamily network of websites, our ability to help people connect with their living relatives, friends, and loved ones increases and we extend our brand to millions of consumers in the offline world."

The acquisition of BigHugs also brings additional leadership in the form of BigHugs founder, Troy Dunn, who pioneered the process of searching for living family members online and also developed a proprietary process for generating national media exposure. Dunn's new role at MyFamily will be vice president of media relations. He will also assist in the development of new services to help people search for living loved ones. Dunn brings with him a core group of media specialists and search experts.

"Over the past few years we have come to know the management at BigHugs and are extremely impressed with their organization," said Mike Dodd, vice president of sales and business development for MyFamily. "We recognize the strength and market leadership of BigHugs and the value that our complementary solutions bring customers. BigHugs brings to our team a wealth of experience and knowledge that will be instrumental in helping to build on our strategy of becoming the trusted leader for top-quality products that connect and strengthen families."

"I could not be happier with the new relationship we have forged with MyFamily," said Troy Dunn, founder of BigHugs. "This relationship gives us the ability to better support the requests we get from customers every day. We will be able to help more people while providing an unmatched service."

About MyFamily.com, Inc.
MyFamily.com, Inc. is among the largest online subscription businesses, with over 850,000 paid subscriptions and more that 7.5 million people using its Web resources every month. A next-generation media company, MyFamily is focused on connecting families with their histories and one another. The company provides both free and paid subscription services through it's network of Internet properties, which include: Ancestry.com, the number one source for tracing family history online; RootsWeb.com, the oldest and largest genealogy community online; MyFamily.com, the foremost provider of private family websites; and Ancestry.co.uk, a leading online source for family history records from the United Kingdom. The company also publishes Ancestry magazine, Genealogical Computing magazine, Ancestry Family Tree software, over 50 book titles, and databases on CD-ROM.