Sign up for the Family Tree Newsletter Plus, you’ll receive our 10 Essential Genealogy Research Forms PDF as a special thank you!
Get Your Free Genealogy Forms
"*" indicates required fields
Two genealogy companies—UK-based brightsolid and Israel’s MyHeritage—are using the 1940 census release as an opportunity to make a splash in the US genealogy market.
Brightsolid, publisher of genealogy and social networking websites and a partner in FamilySearch’s 1940 Census Community indexing project, launched censusrecords.com in February.
The site offers “pay-as-you-go” access to US censuses, a new business model for American genealogists. Users purchase credits they can redeem to view and download individual census pages. At press time, credit packages started at $7.95 for 1,000 credits good for 60 days. Subscriptions also are available, in packages priced from $12.95 to $34.95. Records and transcriptions are still being added to the site, which also will provide access to the 1940 census.
MyHeritage established its first US office in Utah with the purchase of FamilyLink and its WorldVitalRecords website last year. In March, CEO Gilad Japhet announced the company would host the 1940 census for free. The offering is “the first serious signal from MyHeritage that it is strongly entering the historical records market,” says Japhet.
MyHeritage is creating its own 1940 census index. Users will be able to search it in 38 languages using a new “SuperSearch” engine.
From the May/June 2012 issue of Family Tree Magazine
ADVERTISEMENT
