Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Findmypast and Sister Site Mocavo Come Together

I received this press release from Findmypast yesterday:

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Findmypast and sister site Mocavo come together
Findmypast aims to deliver a more focussed, efficient and 
comprehensive service to US family historians

The move is part of Findmypast’s plans for continued expansion in the US


Leading family history website Findmypast, has today announced that sister site Mocavo will be incorporated into Findmypast to create a single experience for customers interested in discovering more about their family history.


The move forms an important part of the US growth strategy set out by Annelies van den Belt, CEO of Findmypast, and will bring the best aspects and features of both sites into one place.

The two websites are currently working together to transfer Mocavo’s strengths and expansive record collections over to Findmypast.  The transition will begin immediately and is expected to be completed within the next few months.

The move is part of Findmypast’s continued expansion and growth in the US market. By merging the two brands, Findmypast will create a more focused and efficient business that will offer a more comprehensive experience to US customers while continuing to offer the industry’s best British and Irish collections. 

In 2016, Findmypast will also be publishing hundreds of millions of new and exclusive US records to further enhance the experience for US family historians.

As part of Findmypast’s commitment to sustain Mocavo’s ‘free forever’ promise, Mocavo subscribers will continue to enjoy free access to all of the same records that were previously published for free on Mocavo.  In addition, they will be invited to take advantage of a subscription to Findmypast equivalent to their existing Mocavo subscription.  Mocavo customers can easily import their family trees onto Findmypast and can immediately start to receive hints opening the door to new discoveries that they never knew existed.  A subscription to Findmypast will allow them access to the site’s entire collection of records, containing over eight billion names, as well as the thousands of new records released by Findmypast every week.


 Annelies van den Belt, CEO of Findmypast, said; “A key part of our 2016 US growth strategy is to centralise our efforts on one core brand, Findmypast.  Combining Mocavo’s strengths and Findmypast’s massive collection of British and Irish data will allow us to provide a richer and more comprehensive experience to family historians all over the world."

About Findmypast
Findmypast (previously DC Thomson Family History) is a British-owned world leader in online family history. It has an unrivalled record of online innovation in the field and 18 million registered users across its family of online brands, which includes Lives of the First World War, The British Newspaper Archive and Genes Reunited, amongst others.

Its lead brand, also called Findmypast, is a searchable online archive of over eight billion family history records, ranging from parish records and censuses to migration records, military collections, historical newspapers and lots more. For members around the world, the site is a crucial resource for building family trees and conducting detailed historical research. 

In April 2003, Findmypast was the first online genealogy site to provide access to the complete birth, marriage, and death indexes for England & Wales, winning the Queen’s Award for Innovation. Since that time, the company has digitised records from across the globe, including major collections from Britain, Ireland, Australia, and the United States. Findmypast, in association with The National Archives, recently launched the 1939 Register, a record of 41 million lives on the eve of World War II.

Mocavo became a fully-owned subsidiary of Findmypast in summer 2014, joining the British Newspaper Archive, Genes Reunited and Lives of the First World War. 

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I expected this move ever since the acquisition of Mocavo by Findmypast about two years ago.  Mocavo has some relatively large U.S. databases - especially the United States Census records which are free to access.  Mocavo also has many smaller databases, especially digitized books, pamphlets and periodicals that cannot be found at any other website.  There are over 300,000 databases at Mocavo, and for about two years they were adding over 1,000 databases per week.
This move adds significant content to the United States holdings of Finsdmypast, which is all to the good for Findmypast.  Mocavo's subscribers will now have access to all of the Findmypast record collections also.  

Copyright (c) 2016, Randall J. Seaver

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1 comment:

T said...

I had subscribed to findmypast a couple of months ago when they ran a $47 special and am I ever glad I did! This should be some real competition for ancestry.com. findmypast is weak on U.S. docs but for the price I paid, I can live with that. I've "crossed the pond" anyway with my research. I do need to find a German site with records even if I can't read a word of it! IF the Macavo resources are included in the findmypast subscription I have now, I'll be pretty busy for these next few months!