Genealogy Path

WALTHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–@Ventures^®, the venture capital business of CMGI^®, Inc. (NASDAQ: CMGI), announced today that one of the companies in its venture capital portfolio, The Generations Network, Inc., has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Spectrum Equity Investors. Under the terms of the agreement, Spectrum will lead an investment of $300 million to purchase a majority interest in the company. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed within 60 days.

“@Ventures has been a longstanding shareholder and supporter of The Generations Network and we are pleased with this acquisition,” said Joseph C. Lawler, chairman, president and CEO of CMGI. “@Ventures has developed a strong foundation of investments, and we are encouraged by the activities of our portfolio companies.”

CMGI expects to receive initial proceeds of approximately $14.0 million in its second fiscal quarter as a result of this transaction. CMGI may receive additional proceeds of up to $0.7 million, assuming there are no claims against proceeds to be held in escrow.

The Generations Network is the leading online network connecting families with their histories and with one another. The Generations Network’s portfolio of sites and products includes Ancestry.com and seven international Ancestry sites, MyFamily.com, Rootsweb.com, Genealogy.com, Family Tree Maker, and Ancestry Magazine.

About CMGI

CMGI, Inc. (NASDAQ: CMGI), through its subsidiary ModusLink, provides industry-leading global supply chain management services and solutions that help businesses market, sell and distribute their products around the world. In addition, CMGI’s venture capital business, @Ventures, invests in a variety of technology ventures. For additional information, visit www.cmgi.com.

About @Ventures

@Ventures provides venture capital to early-stage and mid-stage technology companies. Formed in 1995, @Ventures has funded more than 75 software, IT, Internet, and clean energy companies. The focus of @Ventures’ fifth fund, formed in 2004, is on investments in the cleantech sector, including alternative energy, energy storage and efficiency, and water purification technologies. For more information, visit www.ventures.com.

This release contains forward-looking statements, which address a variety of subjects including, for example, the expected timing of the closing of the transaction, the expected initial and future proceeds from the announced transaction, the financial impact of the transaction on CMGI, our assessment of the companies within our venture capital portfolio and their prospects, and our assessment of the mergers and acquisitions market. All statements other than statements of historical fact, including without limitation, those with respect to future proceeds are forward-looking statements. The following important factors and uncertainties, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements: the transaction is subject to closing conditions which may not be met; the mergers and acquisitions and IPO markets are inherently unpredictable and liquidity events for companies in our venture capital portfolio may not occur; future proceeds from liquidity events are based upon the release of escrowed funds and in the event of successful escrow claims, a portion or all of the future proceeds may not be received as expected. For a detailed discussion of cautionary statements that may affect CMGI’s future results of operations and financial results, please refer to CMGI’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including CMGI’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K. Forward-looking statements represent management’s current expectations and are inherently uncertain. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements made by us.

@Ventures and CMGI are registered trademarks of CMGI, Inc. All other company names and products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Source: October 17, 2007 BusinessWire.com

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SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—FamilySearch and the Georgia Archives announced today that Georgia’s death index from 1919 to 1927 can be accessed for free online. The online index is linked to digital images of the original death certificates. This free database will open doors to additional information for family historians and genealogists with Georgia ties. The index and images can be searched and viewed at www.GeorgiaArchives.org (Virtual Vault link) or labs.familysearch.org.

The names of Georgia’s deceased from 1919 to 1927 are now very much alive, searchable, and viewable online—and for free. The online index to some 275,000 Georgia deaths is the result of a cooperative effort between FamilySearch Record Services, the Georgia Archives, and the Georgia State Office of Vital Records and Statistics.

FamilySearch digitized the records, and volunteers from both FamilySearch and the Archives used FamilySearch indexing technology to create a searchable online index from the digital images of the original historic documents. “These death records are obviously a gold mine for genealogists and historians. Certificates include age, county of death, parents names, occupation, gender, race and cause of death; these documents open all kinds of possibilities to researchers,” said Georgia Archives director, David Carmicheal.

The deceased person’s name, birth and death dates, sex, spouse and parents’ names and location of death were extracted from each certificate for the searchable database. The linked image of the original death certificate can reveal additional interesting facts and clues for the family historian─like the names and birth places of the deceased person’s parents, place and date of the decedent’s birth, marital status, occupation, permanent residence, and place and date of burial and cause of death.

Before making the certificates viewable online, Carmicheal said patrons had to order copies through the mail for a fee or visit the state archive’s office in person. The new online database will make it quicker and easier for patrons to get the information they are seeking.

“It is always exciting for family historians when they can freely search a vital record index online like the Georgia death records. The link to the original death certificate is an added bonus—it saves you time, money, and provides rich genealogy data,” said Paul Nauta, manager of public affairs for FamilySearch. The users just type in an ancestor’s name that died in Georgia between 1919 and 1927. They will see a brief summary of information from the ancestor’s death certificate with a link to also view the original image. Additional state indexes are currently in production.

Genealogical Society of Utah, doing business as FamilySearch, is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch maintains the world’s largest repository of genealogical resources accessed through FamilySearch.org, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries.  FamilySearch is a trademark licensed to the Genealogical Society of Utah and is registered in the United States of America and other countries.    

Tags: death certificates, FamilySearch, FamilySearch.org, Genealogical Society of Utah, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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Spectrum Equity Investors has led a $300 million investment to acquire a majority interest in Provo Utah-based The Generations Network (the parent company of Ancestry.com, MyFamily.com and other sites) according to a source with knowledge of the deal.

The Generations Network competes with a number of new Internet startups that we’ve recently covered. Its Ancestry.com site competes with Geni and MyHeritage. MyFamily.com competes with Story Of My Life, Our Story and others.

Geni’s last round of financing valued the company at $100 million. But none of those competing sites, or even all of those sites aggregated, have caused any financial pain yet for The Generations Network. The company is pulling in $150 million or so in yearly revenue and is hugely profitable according to our source.

This is a liquidity event for many or most of TGN’s shareholders, although it is apparently not a complete buyout. Employees and possibly some outside shareholders still have equity in the entity, which is almost certainly preparing for an IPO or other larger liquidity event.

The most recent Comscore data says TGN had 8.2 million unique worldwide visitors in August. They’ve raised $95 million to date, although the last round of financing was closed in 2001.

The company is not responding to requests for comment.

Tags: Ancestry.com, Geni, MyFamily.com, MyHeritage, The Generations Network
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FROM GENEALOGY SOCIETY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY
NOTE NEW DATE: OCTOBER 30, 2007
NEW CITY LIBRARY

Tags: Carmack, GENEALOGY SOCIETY OF ROCKLAND COUNTY
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Ann Arbor, Mich. – October 15, 2007 – The Guardian and The Observer will be the first British titles to join the acclaimed ProQuest Historical Newspapers™.  More than 212 years of continuous, independent reporting that covers the best in arts, politics, business, and sports will be searchable for the first time.  Digitised by Olive Software, Inc. and converted to ProQuest Historical Newspaper’s specifications, the digital archive will include the Guardian (1821- 2003) and The Observer (1791-2003).

The ability to cross-search the archives of two major British newspapers with ProQuest’s existing American historical newspapers provides researchers with contrasting  perspectives on key international events, such as World Wars I and II, the Middle East peace process, and the terrorist attacks in the United States September 11, 2001.  Researchers will be able to compare news, political cartoons, and editorials about the same events in both American and British newspapers. 

“The vivid and fearless reporting by both newspapers has set journalistic standards not only in the UK, but also worldwide,” said Rod Gauvin, Senior Vice President of Publishing for ProQuest.  “Indeed, globally many rely on the Guardian and The Observer for unbiased, thoughtful reporting on events in their own country. The addition of these two major British newspapers will propel ProQuest Historical Newspapers into a truly international news publication program, giving researchers comprehensive information that can be found easily from a single starting point.”

Gerard Baines, Head of Syndication & Rights, Guardian News and Media said,  “the launch of the archive will revolutionise the way in which users are able to access our historic content, whether for academic research or personal interest. Olive Software has proven to be a fantastic technology partner fulfilling the huge task of digitising the entire archive in less than 12 months. We are also thrilled to be working with ProQuest, the world’s largest distributor of digitised newspaper archives.” 

The Guardian’s and The Observer’s archive will be cross-searchable with ProQuest Historical Newspapers, the world’s largest digital newspaper archive, encompassing more than 17 million pages dating from 1764.  A core research holding in major libraries around the world, it includes such formidable newspapers as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The New York Tribune, The Washington Post, Atlanta Constitution, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, The Chicago Defender, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, Los Angeles Sentinel, and Atlanta Daily World. ProQuest’s Historical Newspapers is the definitive digital newspaper archive with keyword searching, article-level search results, full page views, and the ability to browse through an issue page by page.   

About ProQuest
ProQuest provides seamless access to and navigation of more than 125 billion digital pages of the world’s scholarship, delivering it to the desktop and into the workflow of serious researchers in multiple fields, from arts, literature, and social science to science, technology, and medicine.  ProQuest is part of Cambridge Information Group (www.cambridgeinformationgroup.com).

ProQuest’s vast content pools are available to researchers through libraries of all types and include the world’s largest digital newspaper archive, periodical databases comprising the output of more than 9,000 titles and spanning more than 500 years, the pre-eminent dissertation collection, and various other scholarly collections. Users access the information through the ProQuest®  and CSA Illumina™ online information systems, Chadwyck-Healey™ electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary® and SIRS® educational resources, Ulrich’s® Serials Analysis System, COS Scholar Universe, and Serials Solutions® resource management tools. Through the expertise of business units Serials Solutions and COS, ProQuest provides technological tools that allow researchers and libraries to better manage and use their information resources.   For more information, visit www.proquest.com, www.proquest.co.uk, and www.csa.com.

Tags: British Guardian, Historical Newspapers, newspapers, ProQuest, The Observer
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The legality of all Irish coats of arms issued in the past 60+ years is now in doubt.  The National Library has stopped the Office of the Chief Herald from making any further awards due to concerns that it had no legal powers to do so.  This has been described as the new ‘arms crisis’.  The Genealogical Society of Ireland said it was a very embarrassing situation which had been allowed to develop over a long period of time.

To read further details of this situation, click here.

Tags: coat of arms, genealogical siciety of ireland, heraldry, ireland, Office of the Chief Herald
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The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2007 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com. 

OK, so you found a record that says your ancestor was born in Deals Gap, Tennessee. Now you ask, “Where the heck is that?” You could always purchase a map of Tennessee and then look for the place. However, many small locations are not shown on modern maps. It is also possible that the place may have existed only in past years and has now disappeared; if so, a current map may not show the place you are interested in. You could try searching on Google. That may or may not find the place you seek.

You might search the online mapping services for Deals Gap. That will probably be successful (1.) if it is an incorporated town and (2.) if it still exists. However, if the location you seek has since disappeared or been absorbed into another nearby municipality, even the mapping sites may not find it.

If you want to find a cemetery within Deals Gap, all of the above “solutions” will probably fail. Luckily, there is an easy answer for online genealogists: look at the U.S. Government’s Geographic Names Information System, usually referred to as “GNIS.”. Best of all, that database is available to all, free of charge.

The GNIS database can quickly tell you that Deals Gap is along the border separating North Carolina and Tennessee at 35 degrees 28 minutes 26 seconds North, 83 degrees 55 minutes 16 seconds West. In fact, you can then click on an icon to display a map of that area on your computer screen. There is still one more feature: you can even look at a spy satellite photograph of the area.

The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN), contains information about almost 2 million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States. The GNIS identifies the Federally recognized name of each feature described in the database and provides references to each feature’s state, county, latitude and longitude.

The GNIS serves two purposes for genealogists. First, it gives precise locations of every village, mountain, river, airport, bay, beach, bridge, etc. in the United States. The information includes the exact latitude and longitude of each named feature. Second, it can help find locations mentioned in old documents.

Here is perhaps the best news of all for genealogists: the GNIS lists many cemeteries, although not all of them. For instance, I know that my great-grandparents were buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Bangor, Maine. The GNIS describes Pine Grove Cemetery as in Penobscot County at 44 degrees 47 minutes 54 seconds North, 68 degrees 49 minutes 38 seconds West. If I know the name of the cemetery but not the town, the GNIS database will find all the listed cemeteries of that name in the state. Before you head off to a cemetery of a given name, keep in mind that some cemeteries are not in the list. For instance, the small cemetery where my immediate family along with many of my aunts, uncles and cousins are interred and where I plan to spend eternity isn’t listed in the GNIS database.

Not only will GNIS provide textual information about a place’s location, but it will also automatically link to all of the following:

USGS – National Map
TopoZone.com
GNIS in Google Map
Microsoft Virtual Earth
TerraFly.com
TerraServer DOQ
TerraServer DRG
Find the Watershed
MapQuest
Yahoo! Local Maps
Expedia

By clicking on the appropriate link, you can immediately view that location as displayed in any of the above mapping sites or even look at that location in a photograph taken by a satellite in outer space. With some of the above sites, you can even “fly” over the terrain with a view that emulates a pilot’s view when flying an airplane.

GNIS should be a tool in every genealogist’s “electronic toolbox.” You probably will not need it often; but, when you do, it will provide information that is difficult to find otherwise. The Geographic Names Information System is available at: http://geonames.usgs.gov.

Tags: BGN, Board on Geographic Names, Geographic Names Information System, GNIS, GPS, locations, placenames, U.S. Geological Survey
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The followingå was written by the American Society of Genealogists:

It is with great pleasure that the American Society of Genealogists announces the election of a new Fellow.

Thomas W. Jones, PhD , CG, CGL, was elected based on the quality and quantity of his published genealogical work.

Fellow Jones has been coeditor of the NGSQ since 2003. His excellent genealogical articles have earned him this life election to the ASG. More news will be forthcoming.

Melinde Lutz Sanborn
Outgoing Secretary, ASG

Tags: ASG, fellow, NGSQ
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Because of some recent health issues I’ve missed some key issues that have been affecting the genealogy community.  Specifically, the turmoil that has been going on at the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society (referred to as G&B for short).

For more specific details of this story, which was first published on Sept 20, 2007, click here.   As always, your comments are welcome.

Tags: g&b, genealogical societies, library, nyg&b, Resources, societies
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The following video is an excellent lecture on how you can preserve digital information.

Tags: archives, digital information, lecture, preservation, preserving
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