Ancestry.com Blog » Mike Ward http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry The official blog of Ancestry.com Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:08:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 en NBC Today Show “Discovering Our Roots” http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/08/29/nbc-today-show-discovering-our-roots/ http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/08/29/nbc-today-show-discovering-our-roots/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:26:30 +0000 Mike Ward http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/08/29/nbc-today-show-discovering-our-roots/ NBC’s Today Show hosted a terrific five-part series this week called “Discovering Our Roots.” All week they’ve been taking their anchors on trips to discover their family history. Maureen Taylor, a regular contributor to the Ancestry Weekly Journal, Ancestry Magazine, and author of Capturing Memories: Your Family History in Photographs was on the Today Show this morning to talk about how to get started in family history, which included information on tracing your roots using Ancestry.com. The entire series provides wonderful exposure to family history and the amazing and meaningful discoveries you can uncover as you research your roots.

The Today Show web site has also posted an article called “Tracing your own family roots” which give advice on where to look to get started in your family history.

Trace Your Roots - Getting Started in Family History

Al Roker travels to the Bahamas and Liverpool, England

Ann Curry takes an emotional journey to Japan

Meredith Vieira visits the Azores

Matt Lauer looks back at his Romanian and immigrant roots

]]> http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/08/29/nbc-today-show-discovering-our-roots/feed/ Come see us at FGS 2008 in Philadelphia http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/08/29/come-see-us-at-fgs-2008-in-philadelphia/ http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/08/29/come-see-us-at-fgs-2008-in-philadelphia/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:31:20 +0000 Mike Ward http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/08/29/come-see-us-at-fgs-2008-in-philadelphia/ If you’re in the Philadelphia area next week, join Ancestry.com at the 2008 Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) annual conference. We are excited for the opportunity to meet with our customers and share information about our new products and services at Ancestry.com.

Stop by our booth (#403) to take advantage of our special conference offers or visit one of our classes being taught by Ancestry.com product experts in searching, self-publishing, Family Tree Maker 2009, among others.

Ancestry.com Class Schedule

Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Time Title
8 pm - 9 pm* Creating a Lasting Legacy with Family Tree Maker*
Friday, 5 September 2008
Time Title
8 am - 9 am RootsWeb and the Ancestry.com Community
9:30 am - 10:30 am Beginning Your Search on Ancestry.com
11 am - 12 pm Building Your Tree with Family Tree Maker (Beginner)
2 pm - 3 pm What’s New on Ancestry.com
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm Ancestry.com Family Trees
5 pm - 6 pm Saving the World’s History One Record at a Time: The Ancestry.com World Archives Project
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Time Title
8 am - 9 am Getting the Most out of Family Tree Maker (Intermediate)
9:30 am - 10:30 am Saving the World’s History One Record at a Time: The Ancestry.com World Archives Project
10:30 am - 11:30 am* Searching for Records on Ancestry.com Using Your Family Tree*
11 am - 12 pm Using Ancestry.com to Print, Share and Preserve Your Family Stories
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm* Publishing Your Family History Research*
2 pm - 3 pm Preview: Family Tree Maker 2009
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm U.S. Census and Voter Lists at Ancestry.com
5 pm - 6 pm Searching on Ancestry.com (Intermediate)
All classes are held in Room 107-B except those indicated by an asterisk(*)
Asterisk(*) indicates classes that are held in the Exhibit Hall - Live Events Center (free to the public)

See you in Philly!

]]> http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/08/29/come-see-us-at-fgs-2008-in-philadelphia/feed/ Join Ancestry.com at NGS http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/05/09/join-ancestrycom-at-ngs/ http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/05/09/join-ancestrycom-at-ngs/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 23:02:34 +0000 Mike Ward http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/05/09/join-ancestrycom-at-ngs/ If you’re going to be in Kansas City, Missouri, next week, we’d like to invite you to join us at the Ancestry.com booth during the 2008 National Genealogical Society Conference.

The theme for this year’s show is “Show Me The Nation’s Records” and it will be hosted at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center, 2345 McGee Street in Kansas City.

Exhibit Hall Hours (free to the public)

  • Wednesday, May 14 - 9 am to 5:30 pm
  • Thursday, May 15 - 9 am to 6 pm
  • Friday, May 16 - 9 am to 5:30 pm
  • Saturday, May 17 - 9 am to 3 pm

While you’re there, feel free to attend one of our Ancestry.com lectures (included with conference registration) or stop by our booth and sit in on one of the 20-minute demonstrations on Ancestry.com, AncestryPress, Family Tree Maker and Rootsweb.

Ancestry.com NGS Conference Lectures (check conference materials for room locations)

  • Wednesday - 11 am - What’s New on Ancestry.com
  • Thursday - 11 am - Getting the Most out of Ancestry.com
  • Friday - 2:30 pm - AncestryPress: Share and Preserve Your Family’s Rich Heritage in Print
  • Saturday - 8 am - Getting the Most from Family Tree Maker
  • Saturday - 11 am - Ancestry and Rootsweb Community Products and Resources

Demo Times (In the Ancestry.com booth - stop by for times on specific topics)

  • Wednesday - 10 am, noon, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm
  • Thursday - 10 am, noon, 1 pm, 2pm, 3 pm
  • Friday - 10 am, 11 am, noon, 1 pm, 4 pm
  • Saturday - 10 am, noon 

If you are interested in attending the conference lectures, visit www.eshow2000.com/ngs to view complete event information.

We look forward to meeting you at NGS!

]]> http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/05/09/join-ancestrycom-at-ngs/feed/ Potentially Fraudulent Sites Posing as Genealogy Websites http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/04/10/potentially-fraudulent-sites-posing-as-genealogy-websites/ http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/04/10/potentially-fraudulent-sites-posing-as-genealogy-websites/#comments Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:09:32 +0000 Mike Ward http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/04/10/potentially-fraudulent-sites-posing-as-genealogy-websites/ We have recently become aware of three websites purporting to allow family history research: SearchYourGenealogy.com, Ancestry-search.com and Australian-Ancestry.com. The sites claim to have “the largest online genealogical search tool” and promote themselves as the foremost resources for genealogy, but from what we can tell, these sites are nothing more than a series of web pages with links to other services. These sites, in our opinion, are clearly fraudulent. 

On each site, potential customers are lured to purchase under what we feel to be false, misleading and deceitful promotional material, and get little or no value out of money spent at the websites. Blog and message board posts from the community confirm this opinion. 

The people/companies behind the websites are buying very high level paid search results on Google and other sites. In addition, they are using trademarks of well-known websites, including Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com, to get higher-than-normal natural search results. It appears the site colors, fonts, and pictures on at least one site are designed to mislead people into believing the site is related to Ancestry.com. 

As the leading online family history company, The Generations Network, Inc. and its website properties including Ancestry.com and its global network of Ancestry sites, Genealogy.com, and Rootsweb, we want to encourage consumers to validate and verify the legitimacy of a website before providing credit card information or paying for services. TGN will take appropriate administrative and legal action to do its part to protect the community from these sites.

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