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Saturday, June 5, 2010

Who owns the genealogy companies? Part Six

Next, I move on to Genealogy Today. This site offers both free and fee-based content. It claims to have over 3.53 million names with over 5,480 transcriptions. The site information is as follows:
Designed and launched in 1999 with the primary goal of keeping genealogists informed of the latest research techniques and resources available, Genealogy Today is a specialized portal providing unique databases, search tools and original articles, along with links to the newest sites and online resources. We also offer subscription based databases and newsletters, and over 500 products in our marketplace.
This site is owned and operated by Genealogy Today LLC (blog), a New Jersey limited liability corporation. To contact us, feel free to e-mail our webmaster; phone at (908) 963-1277; or write to: P.O. Box 911, New Providence, NJ 07974-0911.
Further search shows that "Prior to the formation of this LLC, the business was managed as a sole proprietorship and dates back to February 1999 when the flagship site was launched." The founder of Genealogy Today is Illya D'Addezio (blog). It looks like the last post on his personal blog was in July of 2009 which turned out to be a criticism of GenealogyWise.com.

As of the end of March, 2010, Genealogy Today (www.genealogytoday.com) announced that during the month of April, its subscription data products would be consolidated into a single offering. The new subscription service would simply be called "Genealogy Today Subscription Data," and include the following databases: Family Tree Connection, Town Reports Online, and the Military Roots Project. In addition, the Ancestral Criminal Records collection of mug shots and wanted posters were merged.

Unfortunately, unlike Arizona and many other states, New Jersey charges a significant amount of money for a simple corporate search. The Department of the Treasury will supply you with a confirmation of the name of the corporation or LLC but nothing else without payment. Maybe this is one reason companies incorporate in New Jersey?

Genealogy Today has incorporated a number of other smaller websites and lists all of them in its site portfolio. It also has a Family History Wiki

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