Genealogy.com Reaches Major Milestones as Popularity of Online Family History Research Grows

January 27, 2000 (FREMONT, CALIFORNIA) — Genealogy.com, LLC today announced it has reached two significant milestones. First, the company's Online Family Finder Report research tool recently conducted a record 6.7 million online individual searches in one day. Also, Genealogy.com's GenForum message boards, which are frequented daily by tens of thousands of genealogists, surpassed a total of three million messages posted.

Online genealogy is considered one of the most popular online pursuits by many measures, with key genealogy sites numbering among the top 50 sites in page views, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. "Since its inception more than 10 years ago, Genealogy.com has been a leading source of data, tools and resources for building family trees," said Rob Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer of Genealogy.com. "With the increasing popularity of the Internet, we've seen a dramatic rise in the numbers of family history enthusiasts who prefer to use their computers for research, rather than traveling across town or cross country to visit libraries or cemeteries. We've focused our company on helping those enthusiasts by making our site the one place where they can get everything they need for researching and preserving their family history."

As evidence of this growing interest in online family history, Genealogy.com's Online Family Finder Report recently conducted a total of 6.7 million individual online searches in a single day. The Online Family Finder Report, which links directly from the company's Family Tree Maker software, lets users search the data in their entire family tree against searchable genealogy data on the Internet, as well as Genealogy.com's hundreds of data CDs - all with the click of one button. Genealogy.com is the only company or site to offer this intelligent genealogy search engine, which can search multiple names and dates simultaneously. After the search is completed, which just takes a few minutes, the Online Family Finder Report then produces an organized report with the findings prioritized by likelihood that the names found are actually family members connected to the family tree being searched. The Online Family Finder Report is updated regularly, so users can run reports frequently and find new data as it is available.

As another indicator of growing interest in tracing family history online, and in Genealogy.com in particular, the site has achieved a traffic milestone confirming its popularity among both amateur and professional family history enthusiasts. Recently, the GenForum message board surpassed a total of three million messages posted. The message boards enable people to collaborate and share information about specific family names, to trade advice on tracing certain ethnicities or locations, and in general to communicate with other people from around the world who share a passion for understanding their family heritage. Visitors to the GenForum message boards can join in a variety of forums categorized not only by surnames, but also by counties, states and countries.

Tools and Resources Available to Help Family Trees Grow

In addition to its Online Family Finder Report and GenForum message boards, Genealogy.com offers family history enthusiasts a wealth of tools and information online and on CD-ROM. On its Web site, the company offers free interactive tools and research sources, as well as www.GenealogyLibrary.com, a subscription site encompassing genealogy research materials and databases. Genealogy.com's broad line of genealogy software programs -- including the number-one-selling Family Tree Maker -- are designed to meet the needs of people with varying levels of expertise and interest in genealogy. The growing collection of more than 200 Family Archive CDs offers historical data from U.S. marriage, Census, birth and land records, passenger and immigration lists, military records, family pedigrees, the World Family Tree™ and other sources. The World Family Tree is a collection of more than 42 volumes of actual family trees featuring 85 million people, contributed by customers from the US and overseas.

About Genealogy.com, LLC

Genealogy.com, LLC is based in Fremont, California and has 90 employees. A decade-long leader in the genealogy technology space, Genealogy.com's family history information and resources are available on the corporate Web site at www.Genealogy.com, with subscription services available at www.GenealogyLibrary.com. All of its award-winning products and services are offered online and through direct sales; its software programs are also distributed at retail by the Broderbund Software unit of Mattel Interactive.

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