Family Village lets you create a pedigree chart (or input data from the FamilyLink Facebook app) and "immigrate" ancestors into your Family Village. You can outfit them in historical attire, assign them jobs, and let them build out the village by "buying" houses, flags of their home countries and more

The game also searches several websites for free genealogy records related to data in your pedigree chart, and lets you import those records into a family library. You can invite Facebook friends into your village to check out the library.

Partnerships with additional providers of genealogy records and other content are in the works, says Funium CEO Jeff Wells. He cautions, though, that the game is "not a research tool."

As of press time, Family Village had more than 11,000 active users. The game is free, with the option to spend actual cash on some of your ancestors' purchases.

Wells dreamed up Family Village when his clan was unmoved by his genealogical finds. "We wanted to do something that would end up being a segue way for people who don't have the interest to get involved in family history," he says. The game adheres to Facebook privacy standards, with adjustable privacy settings.

Wells says 300 million people play social games each month. He's hoping that genealogists' spouses and teenagers will become interested in Family Village and learn more about their heritage.

• The Family Tree Sourcebook
• live and recorded expert webinars
• on-demand genealogy classes