Scotland Online acquires Find My Past

Scotland Online, the parent company of Scotland's people, has bought the Find My Past website (formerly 1837.com). This is the official announcement:

SCOTLAND ONLINE CREATES WORLD-CLASS FORCE IN FAMILY HISTORY MARKET WITH ACQUISITION OF FINDMYPAST.COM

Scotland Online, the ISP and IT solutions provider, today announced it has acquired findmypast.com, the leading independent UK-based family history website, from Title Research Group as part of its plans to establish a world-class online network of family history resources.
The merger will see Scotland Online's current online genealogy service, ScotlandsPeople, working closely with findmypast.com to create a dynamic family history resource to serve millions of family history enthusiasts worldwide.

The amalgamation will enable a wider audience to access the most complete suite of family history records available online in the UK and will benefit the genealogy industry by enabling genealogists and amateur family history enthusiasts to access hundreds of millions of records in one place. Scotland Online recently won the tender for the 1911 England and Wales census records, which will be available during 2009.

Findmypast.com will also continue to add data and functionality to its website, further consolidating the company's long-term commitment to the family history market.
Findmypast.com established itself as an innovative genealogical service with a commitment to customers and quality that have made it the number one destination website for family history researchers. It was the first company in the world to put the complete Birth, Marriage and Death indexes for England and Wales online, later adding its census and unique passenger list records.

Continued improvement in findmypast.com's functionality and user experience will remain a key objective for the business, and customer access to both findmypast.com and ScotlandsPeople's online resources will be unaffected by the merger. Findmypast.com will continue to be based in London.

Chris van der Kuyl, Chief Executive of Scotland Online, said; "We are delighted to welcome the findmypast team to Scotland Online and look forward to working very closely with them on building a wonderful family history resource. Family history enthusiasts the world over will benefit from our experience in developing customer facing services and combining our existing skills within Scotland Online with those of findmypast will be of great benefit to the family history community".

Tom Curran, Chief Executive of Title Research Group, the parent company of findmypast.com, commented: "This transaction will bring together two established and successful genealogy resources to create a world-class network of family history records. I am delighted Scotland Online shares findmypast.com's dedication to making more genealogy resources available to both genealogists and family history enthusiasts and that they share our passion for excellence and commitment to customers."


Chris