You can contact Debra Chatfield and Amy Sell in the Press Office by emailing press@findmypast.com.au

Findmypast.com.au was launched in May 2010 as a sister-site to the leading UK family history website findmypast.co.uk. The site currently provides access to over 50 million family, local and social history records from Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea. We are working in partnership with record holders and archives to enhance our ever-growing collection of records.

FamilyLink.com, Inc., findmypast.co.uk and Gould Genealogy & History announce agreement

Australian online service will be relaunched as findmypast.com.au supported by Gould Genealogy & History

The National Genealogical Society Conference in Salt Lake City provides the backdrop for a joint announcement today by three leading players in the world genealogy market. FamilyLink.com, Inc.'s WorldVitalRecords Australasian operation is to be taken over by leading UK family history website findmypast.co.uk and run in partnership with Gould Genealogy & History of Australia.

The website currently known as WorldVitalRecords.com.au will be relaunched next month under the new name of findmypast.com.au. It will initially provide subscription access to mainly Australian and New Zealand content. The plan is then to fully integrate both content and features from the findmypast.co.uk website as soon as possible.

Findmypast.co.uk is part of brightsolid online publishing and is the leading UK-based provider of family history content. It is currently the only supplier of the complete England and Wales censuses from 1841 to 1911. As well as developing its own digitisation projects, findmypast already has over 100 existing data licence partners, ranging from The National Archives of the United Kingdom and the British Library, to family history societies, county record offices and individuals. The company already has a well-established Australian presence, and the addition of this website will build on that foundation.

Findmypast.co.uk is already working with leading family history societies and suppliers to offer significant Australian content, with many more records in the pipeline. The company will now be working in partnership with Gould Genealogy & History, whose data will provide the backbone of the content for the new service. Alan Phillips' team at Gould Genealogy & History, and in particular, Unlock the Past will be instrumental in providing promotion including roadshows and customer support throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Elaine Collins, Commercial Director at findmypast.co.uk commented: "At findmypast.co.uk we already have a high proportion of customers in Australia and New Zealand, who love our UK records. This new development will in future enable us to offer even more exciting content for them. And we know that one in three of our customers in the UK has at least one branch of their family that has emigrated to Australia & New Zealand, so the new service is bound to be of immense interest to them. We are very excited by the prospect of a great new vision for online genealogy."

Alan Phillips of Gould Genealogy & History added: "We have long felt that the strong Australasian collections with FamilyLink's WorldVitalRecords and the extensive British collections of findmypast.co.uk were very complementary, especially for the Australian/New Zealand market. We had long hoped for some kind of collaboration in marketing in this region. Marketing both under one new Australasian brand is even better for all concerned and especially users. Further, partnering with findmypast.co.uk will make a large body of Australasian content much more readily available to British and European users with down under interests."

Yvette Arts, Director of Partner Relations at FamilyLink.com stated: "As FamilyLink.com concentrates on the integration of the social networking side of its operations into the main WorldVitalRecords.com site, it was a natural fit for two of our partners, findmypast.co.uk and Gould Genealogy & History, to form the backbone of a new Australian/New Zealand service. We are pleased about this new development in the genealogy and family history space, and see it as a major step towards building a top online service for a global audience. FamilyLink.com will continue to feature Australasian content on its WorldVitalRecords.com site."

Subscribers to the existing worldvitalrecords.com.au site will be able to access the records on the new findmypast.com.au site as soon as it launches, and those customers with the world package or the Australasia plus will additionally be able to access the records on FamilyLink's WorldVitalRecords.com world site.

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