Filae.com merges with MyHeritage.com

 

https://www.filae.com/

In an email announcement received 2 August 2021, the French genealogical database company, Filae.com, is merging with the Israeli-based company, MyHeritage.com. Quoting from the announcement, translated from the original French:

It is in this history that a new chapter of our fantastic entrepreneurial and human epic is being written today with the officialization of the first step of a merger with MyHeritage, one of the world leaders in genealogy in line. Renowned around the world, MyHeritage was founded in 2003 by genealogist Gilad Japhet, who still runs it today. Since 2008, I have spoken regularly with Gilad during his visits to France and I have been able to appreciate the relationship of trust and mutual respect that has been established between us. These discussions were an opportunity to realize how much our two companies share similar backgrounds, the same passion for simplicity and accessibility, as well as the same values ​​of constant innovation in the service of their members, of investment in historical content. original and respectful of employees and users. It is therefore very natural that we decided to come together in order to allow MyHeritage and Filae to join forces and work together.

We are therefore very excited to share this good news with you since the financial and technological support of a world leader such as MyHeritage will allow Filae's services and data to be developed more quickly and efficiently. This union will also make the exclusive collections of Filae more accessible to all descendants of French people wherever they are in the world thanks to the leadership position acquired by MyHeritage in many countries.

The Filae company will remain French and I will continue to manage it. Still based in Paris, the entire Filae team will continue, in complete autonomy, to offer services and data to its users. This merger will not result in any changes to the functionalities of each of the two services. Filae users, rest assured of the importance that the MyHeritage and Filae teams place on the protection of your data. As such, I am happy to let you know that MyHeritage is strongly committed to its users regarding the confidentiality and protection of their data. This makes it unique among the major players in online genealogy. In particular, its privacy policy states unequivocally: "MyHeritage has never sold or licensed personal data (such as customer names, email addresses, residential addresses and family trees) and never will. in the future."

This is an interesting development and points out the economy of scale that exists in large online database companies. Although some of the larger genealogy database companies might be viewed as competitors by those outside the genealogical community, those of us who have been online and watched the development of the companies appreciate their differences and try to use all of their resources. From my standpoint, thinking that these companies are competing with one another is like thinking that The National Archives in Kew, Richmond, England competes with the United States National Archives in Washington, D.C. Granted, some of these companies are "for profit" enterprises but that fact enables them to continue to expand their holdings and improve their database activities. Genealogists who complain about the "cost" of using these online businesses ignore the fact that millions of people spend far more money than the subscription costs of these companies for pastimes such as golf and attending other sporting events. For example, season tickets to the U.S. football games at our local university stadium can cost upwards of $900 U.S. a year for about 10 games. Get real. Genealogy is one of the least expensive endeavors you can be involved in. Of course, like anything, if you want to spend a lot of money, you can, primarily by traveling to your ancestral homes.