Press Releases

The latest news highlights and stories, hot off the press, from Archives.com.

Inflection Sells Archives.com to Ancestry.com Inc.

REDWOOD CITY, CA, April 25, 2012 --Inflection, a Silicon Valley Big Data startup, today announced the sale of its family history website Archives.com to Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) for $100 million in cash. Archives.com will continue under Inflection leadership until the completion of customary closing conditions.

"The sale is an exciting moment for Inflection and the broader family history community," said Inflection CEO Matthew Monahan. "Thanks to Archives.com General Manager Joe Godfrey's inspired leadership and our extraordinary team, Archives.com has quickly become one of family history's most dynamic web properties. Our plan for a simple and affordable family history experience will be accelerated thanks to Ancestry's deep expertise and resources." Read More »

Archives.com Partners With the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to Publish Millions of Church Records

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 17, 2012 - Archives.com, a website that makes family history research simple and affordable, is pleased to announce its partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to digitize and index 1,000 reels of microfilm containing millions of baptism, confirmation, marriage, and funeral records. Archives.com will make these records available online for the first time as part of its ongoing effort to expand its collection of over 2.1 billion historical records.

With the help of digitization and indexing partners, Archives.com will create digital indexes of these records. The documents cover Lutheran congregations throughout the U.S., and will be accompanied by images of the original parish register ledger books. Dating from 1793-1940, these new collections will help users uncover valuable information about their ancestors that isn't available anywhere else online. Read More »

Megan Smolenyak Joins as Family History Advisor to Archives.com

We're thrilled to have Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak join us as Family History Advisor to Archives.com. As part of this role, Megan will be working with us on the most anticipated event this year - the 1940 census launch! Megan will help us to spread the word to the general public about this historic event, and communicate the significance to not just family historians, but everyone!

We're passionate about this message, because of the central role that Archives.com is playing in the launch of the 1940 census images April 2, and in sponsorship of the 1940 Census Community Project. Read More »

Archives.com Partners with W.E.B. DuBois Institute to Publish the Patriots of Color Database

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Feb. 24, 2012 -- In honor of Black History Month, Archives.com, a website devoted to making family history simple and affordable, today announced the launch of the Patriots of Color Database. Archives.com is bringing this collection online for the first time, compiling years of research facilitated by the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. These records unveil new and invaluable information about some of the men and women of color who fought for American independence in such roles as soldiers, skilled craftsmen, and servants. This new collection, of critical importance to historians, academics, and the general public, is now available for free at http://www.Archives.com/Patriots. Read More »

Archives Parent Company Adds New VP of User Experience

At Archives we're deeply committed to providing users with an easy-to-use experience that allows you to search and discover ancestors simply and effectively. Today we've strengthened that commitment by adding Peter Merholz, design and user experience veteran, to the team.

Peter will join Archives.com's parent company Inflection as Vice President of User Experience. See the full announcement here.

Peter comes to Inflection from Adaptive Path, a premier user experience consulting firm that he co-founded. Peter helped build a global client base including key companies like Samsung, Twitter, Zappos, and the Harvard Business Review. Read More »

Three Genealogy Powerhouses Join Forces to Publish 1940 US Census

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - December 16, 2011 - Three leading genealogy organizations, Archives.com, FamilySearch International, and findmypast.com, announced today they are joining forces to launch the 1940 US Census Community Project. The ambitious project aims to engage online volunteers to quickly publish a searchable, high quality name index to the 1940 US Census after it is released in April 2012 by the National Archives and Record Administration of the United States (NARA). The highly anticipated 1940 US Census is expected to be the most popular US record collection released to date. Its completion will allow anyone to search the record collection by name for free online. Read More »

Archives.com Partners with the National Archives to Unveil the 1940 Census

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Nov. 17, 2011 -- Archives.com, the website that makes discovering your family history simple and affordable, has joined in partnership with the National Archives of the United States to provide the public with free digital access to the 1940 Federal Population Census beginning on April 2, 2012. In close collaboration with the National Archives, Archives.com will build a website for researchers to browse, view, and download images from the 1940 Census, the most important collection of newly released U.S. genealogy records in a decade.

Archives.com is pleased to contribute to this momentous project, allowing researchers to digitally access Read More »

Archives.com Adds the U.S. Census to its Website

Today Archives.com, the web's most affordable and easy-to-use subscription-based family history site, announces the addition of the U.S. Federal Census, the single most valuable collection of U.S. historical records. The U.S. Census collections were made available by FamilySearch International, the world's largest genealogy organization, as part of a joint effort to introduce more records to family historians worldwide. In conjunction with the Census effort, Archives will also embark on a joint project with FamilySearch to digitize tens-of-millions of additional historical records, the majority of which are not currently online. Archives has pledged a minimum of five million dollars to this important project which will positively impact the entire community. Read More »

Archives.com Adds Over 3.5 Million New U.S. Records and Images

Today, Archives announces the addition of over 3.5 million new U.S. vital records and images to the website, demonstrating its commitment to adding value while maintaining the same low price point. Throughout the past year, Archives has significantly increased the number of historical records available to members, and this will continue to remain a key focus for the site. Archives is pleased to bring users these new, compelling record collections... Read More »

Archives Grant Helps Non-Profit to Preserve Jesse James' Family History

Archives is pleased to announce the recipient of the February Archives.com Grant award: The James Preservation Trust. Founded in 2002, this non-profit organization is dedicated to sharing and preserving the family history of the notorious American outlaw Jesse James. The organization, led by President Eric James, conducts extensive James family history and genealogy research, maintains James family artifacts and archives, and administers the family's DNA study. James family genealogies are... Read More »

Archives Announces Two Grant Winners for January 2011

Palo Alto, CA - February 8, 2011 - Archives.com launched its Grant Program in early January and has received a terrific response. In the last 30 days Archives received over 100 applications, and has been extremely impressed with the caliber of project proposals. Archives is pleased to announce not just one, but two Archives.com Grant recipients for January 2011. These are the first recipients of the Archives.com Grant, an award... Read More »

Archives.com Predicts Industry Growth in Family History Trends Report

February 2, 2011 -- Archives.com, an Inflection brand, today released its Online Family History Trends Report and infographic, summarizing recent trends in the family history space and providing insights on what's to come. The trends infographic allows readers to easily interpret important data points presented in the report through the use of cutting-edge designs. The report was developed out of the desire to have information on current trends in the... Read More »

Archives.com Announces Grant to Fund Family and Cultural History Projects

PALO ALTO, CA -- January 13, 2011 -- Archives.com, an Inflection brand, today announces its Grant Program, a major initiative to assist individuals and communities with family, communal, and cultural research and preservation projects. The Archives.com Grant will help people and organizations take on historically significant projects that positively impact their family or community. "Since inception, Archives.com has sought to create a simple and affordable family history research experience for... Read More »

Archives.com Integrates 40 Million New Records and 110 Million Newspaper Pages

PALO ALTO, CA - December 2, 2010 - Continuing its commitment to simple and affordable family history research, Archives.com, an Inflection brand, has vastly enhanced its content offerings by integrating more than 40 million new digital records and 110 million scanned newspaper pages dating back to 1753. The major enhancement represents a 25% increase in U.S. vital records on the site and creates an amazing opportunity for users to uncover... Read More »

Archives.com Provides Complimentary Memberships To All National Genealogical Society Members

PALO ALTO, CALIF. - May 27, 2010 - Archives.com, a website devoted to making family history simple and affordable, announced today that they have donated complimentary three month memberships to all 9,000 members of the National Genealogical Society (NGS). These complimentary memberships give NGS members unlimited access to over 1.2 billion records on Archives.com, as well as online family tree software, Expert Series articles, hours of professional tutorial videos,... Read More »

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Partners With Archives To Expand Resources For African Family History

PALO ALTO, CALIF. - May 12, 2010 - Archives.com, a website devoted to making family history simple and affordable, announced today that Harvard Professor and leading authority in the field of African American Studies, Henry Louis Gates Jr. has joined as an official advisor. Professor Gates is the Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, and host of PBS's 'Faces of... Read More »

Fast-Growing Archives.com Launches Affiliate Program With 50 Percent Base Commissions

PALO ALTO, CALIF. - May 5, 2010 - Archives.com, the Internet's fastest growing family history website, is pleased to announce the launch of its brand new affiliate program on the Internet's largest third-party affiliate network, Commission Junction (CJ). With the addition of Archives.com to the CJ network, anyone interested in making money online can now easily join CJ and become an affiliate of Archives.com. With this launch, Archives.com immediately becomes... Read More »

Archives.com Adds Millions of Historical Records and New Features to Meet Surging Interest in Family History

In response to Americans' growing interest in family history and genealogy, Archives.com, which makes researching family history simple and affordable, has expanded its collection to include more than 1.2 billion historical records and has added a number of new features, including Free Internet Search.  Now a single search on Archives.com can locate records from several popular online genealogy resources - for FREE. Archives.com, which launched in July 2009 in the... Read More »

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