Who Owns the Genealogy Companies -- Websites

It may not bother you, or yet again, it might, to find out that many of the online genealogy websites are owned by the same entities. It seems to me that I would want to know if I subscribed to one website owned by an online company and then had to pay another subscription fee for access to another website owned by the same company. How much of what I am getting in return is an overlap between the two (or more) websites? Why do the online companies charge for every individual site? Is is sort-of like Disney World, Disneyland and the Epcot Center? Cross capitalization of the same or similar information?

In compiling a list of owned sites, I do not pretend that I have identified all of the possible agreements and interrelationships. Many of the agreements are noted only in passing online and are difficult to ferret out. Some of the websites advertise their ownership by another entity, others, although completely owned by a larger company, fail to mention the ownership in any fashion. The logical place to start is with Ancestry.com.

Here is a list with some commentary, concerning the websites owned or controlled or in partnership with Ancestry.com.

Ancestry.com - The named entity is in turn owned by a European private equity firm Permira. Ancestry.com President and CEO Tim Sullivan and CFO and COO Howard Hochhauser maintain a majority of their equity stakes in the company [whatever that means]. Spectrum Equity will also remain an investor.

Associated websites:

• Genealogy.com
• Ancestry.co.uk
• Ancestry.ca
• Ancestry.com.au
• Ancestry.de
• ProGenealogists
• MyFamily.com
• Fold3.com
• Mundia.com
• FamilyTreeMaker.com
• Ancestry.se
• Genline.se
• Archives.com
• Newspapers.com
• AncestryDNA
• 1000memories.com
• MyCanvas.com
• Rootsweb
• LongLostPeople.com [no longer active]
• Blogs.ancestry.com
• iArchives.com

That's about all for the Ancestry.com list. Let me know if you find any more connections. In my next post, I will move on to MyHeritage.com.

In an earlier edition of this post I listed FamilyTreeMagazine.com as an Ancestry.com associated website. In fact, Family Tree Magazine is a division of F+W Media, Inc. With its headquarters in Cincinnati, F+W operates offices in Devon, England; New York City; and Iola, Wis. The company’s publications target hobbyists and enthusiasts in categories such as writing, fine art, graphic design, crafts, antiques, various collectibles, coins, stamps and the outdoors.
F+W publishes more than 50 magazines and has an equally deep book-publishing program across 10 different imprints in complementary, special-interest fields. In addition, the company owns and operates conferences and book clubs in the United States and United Kingdom.

Sorry about the error.