MyHeritage.com buys FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com

So, by now the news has probably reached everyone that MyHeritage.com has acquired FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com. This is a major announcement from some major players in the online genealogy world.  I was first introduced to MyHeritage.com some years back when they purchased GenCircles.com. I have been using MyHeritage.com as well as WorldVitalRecords.com for many years now and have found both to be valuable research tools. Each of these sites have their own purpose. MyHeritage is a social network with a great collaborative tree, photo recognition and smart matching capability. WorldVitalRecords has a large collection of records, including newspapers, yearbook collections, links to Google Books, FindAGrave and many others from the FamilyLink collection. Another thing that I have liked about MyHeritage is the international membership. There are over 60 million users from around the world and the site is published in 38 languages. I have been able to link up with people in Germany, England, Australia and other places through common individuals in our family trees. MyHeritage has offices in Europe, Israel, Australia, and now after this purchase, Utah in the US.

So what does this mean in the realm of online genealogy research? That is a good question. I hope this means that they will allow linking of records to their family trees, much like Ancestry.com currently does. I also hope that this will open up the international records to many more people so we can further our research overseas. Only time will tell, but I do see great things from this merger.

If you would like more information on this story, check out the following weblink:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/21/social-network-for-families-myheritage-furthers-u-s-presence-with-acquisition-of-familylink/