If competition is good for consumers, then genealogists should be the winners of two major acquisitions of leading genealogy companies in France.
Less than a month after MyHeritage announced it’s acquisition of French company Filae, Ancestry has made a similar announcement.
Ancestry yesterday announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Geneanet. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Geneanet has a large European community of more than four million members. Its website is available in ten languages and more than 25 countries.
Combining Geneanet’s free family tree platform and engaged community with Ancestry’s global subscriber base and unparalleled historical records will enable family history discoveries and connections for even more people around the world.
The Geneanet.org site will remain an independent site and will retain all of its services. It will remain managed by the Geneanet company based in Paris with the same team of employees and headed by its founder Jacques Le Marois. Family trees on the site will remain the property of those who created them and they will continue to be hosted by Geneanet.
Geneanet’s subscribers will benefit from access to many additional databases as part of their Premium subscription. Other databases will be accessible soon. Family trees will also be indexed on Ancestry’s engine with cross-reference to Geneanet for consultation.
French records
Ancestry, which already offers the largest collection of European records, is also investing in digitizing and indexing a national collection of French historical records, including the complete French census and birth, marriage and death records which will be available soon, accelerating family history discoveries and connections between people in France and those around the world with French heritage.
“We are thrilled to welcome Geneanet to the Ancestry family and look forward to working together to grow our global community so that more people can easily discover, craft and connect around their family story,” said Deb Liu, Ancestry president and CEO. “Ancestry is committed to continued investment in Geneanet’s free tree-building platform and the volunteer spirit of its community.”
“This is an exciting next step for Geneanet and for our community. We will preserve our business model and continue to focus on what we do well, building a highly-engaged community of passionate users. Our members will greatly benefit from Ancestry’s vast record collections and global network as they build their family trees and connect with new relatives and share their family stories,” said Jacques Le Marois, founder and CEO of Geneanet.
Failed attempt to merge with Filae
Geneanet said that its merger with Ancestry was the next logical step after the failure of its negotiations with Filae before MyHeritage finally acquired it. Faced with a stronger competitor, Geneanet was concerned about losing a large number of subscribers and no longer being able to continue investing in its services and new content.
Geneanet was created in 1996, the same year as Ancestry, but the American genealogy company is not well known in France. Ancestry set up a subsidiary in Paris in 2007, but closed it in 2011, after being unable to penetrate the complexity of the French genealogy market.
