The following press release caught my attention. Since I spend so much time searching in Sweden, I find this of immense interest. Perhaps, you will as well.
Ancestry.com to Acquire Sweden's Genline.se
Leading Swedish Family History website
26 million pages of family history records, 16th-20th century
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM), the world’s largest online family history resource, today announced that it has agreed to acquire the leading Swedish family history website Genline.se.
Total consideration for Genline is approximately US $6.7 million, to be paid in cash at closing. The offer has been accepted by Genline’s Board of Directors but remains subject to approval of Genline Holding AB’s public shareholders and other ordinary course closing conditions.
Genline expects to provide proxy materials to shareholders immediately and hold a Special Meeting of Stockholders shortly to vote on the transaction. Genline trades on the Stockholm exchange AktiTorget under the ticker symbol GENL.
Upon completion of the transaction, Genline will join Ancestry.com’s family of nine web properties globally, which together serve more than 1.2 million subscribers and host over five billion historical records and 17 million family trees containing 1.7 billion profiles.
Genline currently has more than 17,000 paying members with access to 26 million pages of digitized Swedish church records spanning more than 400 years from the 16th to the 20th century.
Josh Hanna, SVP and General Manager, International, Ancestry.com Inc., comments: “The Genline.se transaction, our first international acquisition, represents an exciting opportunity for Ancestry.com to access Sweden’s avid family history community and to provide Ancestry.com subscribers of Swedish heritage in the U.S. and other markets with access to important historical content.
"For Genline members, the millions of US and Canadian records with Swedish relevance will provide many new opportunities to discover North American ancestors."
Mikko Ollinen, Genline AB Managing Director, comments: "We are delighted that Ancestry.com sees the potential of Genline. Together we look forward to continuing to grow our business in Sweden and to making new and exciting historical records, both local and international, available to our members."
Ancestry.com expects to acquire all shares of Genline AB for approximately 53 million Swedish kronor with an adjustment for net working capital. Based on a June 11, 2010 exchange rate of SEK7.94 to US$1.00, the net purchase amount approximates US$6.7 million
Genline’s 2009 reported revenue was $2.4 million. Ancestry.com does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in connection with its first quarter earnings release on April 29, 2010.
Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or to future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "appears," "may," "designed," "expect," "intend," "focus," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "should," or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements include statements describing our subscriber base, our activities to enhance subscribers' experience and our business outlook. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond our control and that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements.
Factors that could materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements, and our ability to execute on our business strategy include those listed under the caption "Risk Factors" of the Ancestry.com Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009.
We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Ahhh, genealogy. A glimpse of the past shows of what I am made.....
Showing posts with label sweden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sweden. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Feeling the Old Country in Your Bones?
Feel like doing some genealogy digging in the old country? You're in luck today if your old country is Sweden. Today, it's free.
Go try out Arkhiv Digital. You do have to register first-- and then download a program-- but then you get to go and look at some old estate records in living (or rather, dead) color! In addition, AD is also trying to photograph all the church records thru 1894.
As genealogy buffs, we know how valuable it can be to see a digital photograph of records, and as Swedish descendants, we know how valuable the Swedish Parish records are to our research.
AD is even running a special from now until the end of the year. I do suggest you check out their records to see if now is the time for you to hop on the Swedish train or to wait until more records are digitized.
Check out their site: http://www.arkivdigital.net/
As for me, I'll be staying up late tonight to try and put some meat on my bones of the past.
Go try out Arkhiv Digital. You do have to register first-- and then download a program-- but then you get to go and look at some old estate records in living (or rather, dead) color! In addition, AD is also trying to photograph all the church records thru 1894.
As genealogy buffs, we know how valuable it can be to see a digital photograph of records, and as Swedish descendants, we know how valuable the Swedish Parish records are to our research.
AD is even running a special from now until the end of the year. I do suggest you check out their records to see if now is the time for you to hop on the Swedish train or to wait until more records are digitized.
Check out their site: http://www.arkivdigital.net/
As for me, I'll be staying up late tonight to try and put some meat on my bones of the past.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Sometimes Letting the Fingers do the Walking Works Wonders
No web site? How can that be? In this age and time, how can a small town historical society not be online? It seems, well, it seems so quaint.
I've been digging around in Sweden with the help of some online friends to try and find more documentation from the 1874-1877 time frame in Stockholm. We've made some progress and I hope more is to follow.
In the meantime, I took the time to go back and look at what I really have in the way of documentation from the state of South Carolina. There's work to be done.
After letting my fingers do the typing, the search in the probate court of Charleston left me with no more information than I had. Early family lore says my great grandparents were married there. If so, Charleston doesn't know it.
I checked the 1880 census in the place they moved and found them there. Of course, Orangeburg County searches had me pulling out my hair in vain. You just can't do a lot of online research there.
I found the birthdate of the couple's oldest child which is in 1880. So, logic tells me the marriage had to happen sometime between September 1879, which is when she got off the boat in New York, and the birth of the child. Logic says it, but there's no proof.
Time to let my fingers do the walking. I called the church at which the family were members in the 1880s. A very sweet older lady answered the phone. We chatted and then she asked for the surname. When I told her, I found out that my great uncle had worked for her brother in law and that her husband is kin to the wife of this same great uncle. Coincidence?
She didn't know of any records as she is only a sometimes volunteer, but I hope she found the common names of our blood lines sufficient that she will dig some in the past.
I also asked her about the local historical society and she tells me they just aren't real active. How can that be? Oh, I shudder at the thought.
Then, she pops up and tells me that my great uncle and his wife were very active members of the historical society. Perhaps there is more information to be found there!
The historical society is only open for a few hours a week and, of course, they are not open today.
So, while I haven't really found any evidence for my genealogy bug, perhaps, letting my fingers do the walking today will unearth a new treasure.
Tip of the day. Be sure to contact those old small churches. Their older members may dredge up some memories of some of your kin. Just another reason to smile as their memories get added to my memory bank.
I've been digging around in Sweden with the help of some online friends to try and find more documentation from the 1874-1877 time frame in Stockholm. We've made some progress and I hope more is to follow.
In the meantime, I took the time to go back and look at what I really have in the way of documentation from the state of South Carolina. There's work to be done.
After letting my fingers do the typing, the search in the probate court of Charleston left me with no more information than I had. Early family lore says my great grandparents were married there. If so, Charleston doesn't know it.
I checked the 1880 census in the place they moved and found them there. Of course, Orangeburg County searches had me pulling out my hair in vain. You just can't do a lot of online research there.
I found the birthdate of the couple's oldest child which is in 1880. So, logic tells me the marriage had to happen sometime between September 1879, which is when she got off the boat in New York, and the birth of the child. Logic says it, but there's no proof.
Time to let my fingers do the walking. I called the church at which the family were members in the 1880s. A very sweet older lady answered the phone. We chatted and then she asked for the surname. When I told her, I found out that my great uncle had worked for her brother in law and that her husband is kin to the wife of this same great uncle. Coincidence?
She didn't know of any records as she is only a sometimes volunteer, but I hope she found the common names of our blood lines sufficient that she will dig some in the past.
I also asked her about the local historical society and she tells me they just aren't real active. How can that be? Oh, I shudder at the thought.
Then, she pops up and tells me that my great uncle and his wife were very active members of the historical society. Perhaps there is more information to be found there!
The historical society is only open for a few hours a week and, of course, they are not open today.
So, while I haven't really found any evidence for my genealogy bug, perhaps, letting my fingers do the walking today will unearth a new treasure.
Tip of the day. Be sure to contact those old small churches. Their older members may dredge up some memories of some of your kin. Just another reason to smile as their memories get added to my memory bank.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Great News for Swedish Researchers!
Anyone who has ever tried to dig deep into their Swedish ancestors knows what a trick that can be. In my genealogy story, my maternal great grandparents were the proverbial just off the ship types, even though they didn't marry until they were in America. Tracing their families back has proven to be difficult, but wildly satisfying. With the help of an American friend, whose ties go back to my "family" cemetery in Pittsburgh, I've found family and learned so much of the early naming customs and history of Sweden. I've also been rewarded with new Swedish cousin penpals through this search and enjoy learning more about my Swedish roots.
I hope some of these new records will be transcribed into English for those of us who don't read Swedish!
Hejda.
The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 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.
Volunteers to Bring Historic Sweden Church Records Online
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
FALKÖPING, Sweden—FamilySearch and Svensk Arkivinformation (SVAR), a division of the National Archives of Sweden, announced today the launch of the largest online indexing initiative undertaken to-date. The two groups unveiled plans to engage Swedish volunteers throughout the world to help create a highly searchable, free online index to the historic parish registers of Sweden—200 years of recorded Swedish history as documented in the Sweden church records—comprising over 400 million names.
In 1608 the Archbishop of Sweden asked the clergy to begin making records of births, christenings, marriages, and burials of all the residents of Sweden. By 1686, they were conducting regular examinations of the population of each parish. The church records (often called “parish registers” or “church books”) span over two centuries and chronicle the vital life events of an estimated 418 million people who moved in and out of parishes in Sweden.
“The church records are a key source for genealogists seeking Swedish ancestors because nearly everyone who lived in Sweden was recorded in a church record,” said David Rencher, FamilySearch chief genealogical officer. “The challenge now is to make those records, which are written in Swedish, available to researchers worldwide,” concluded Rencher.
“We are very pleased with the excellent cooperation we have enjoyed for many years between FamilySearch and the National Archives to microfilm and scan the Swedish church records. Now we are going to create an index that will revolutionize the genealogy research in Sweden. The simplicity of finding and reading about one’s ancestors on the Web in the millions of scanned records will attract many beginners of all ages,” said Anders Nordström, director of SVAR. “To the academic researcher, this is an entirely new means. It makes it possible to do research within disciplines on a micro level, an extent that was never possible before now,” added Nordström.
The way Swedes passed on a family name throughout the centuries is another reason why the indexing initiative is so important to family historians. “Imagine being in a Swedish community 200 years ago and 10 out of 100 people have the same first and last name as you. That’s how small the naming pool was in Scandinavia,” said Jeff Svare, FamilySearch Scandinavian collection management specialist.
If you were Anders Andersson, your father could have been Anders. Your brother could have also been named Anders, as well as your uncle. To help distinguish which Anders Andersson you were referring to at the time, locals added the name of the farm (residence) of an individual to keep them straight. “Otherwise, when you’re trying to search for Anders Andersson today, your ancestor falls into the proverbial fog of same-named people and you don’t know who they are without the additional context,” added Svare. The FamilySearch index will include the residence or farm name from the individual’s vital record. This information has been extracted to assist patrons in identifying their Swedish ancestor.
The goal is to engage the Swedish community in creating a highly searchable, free online index to the Sweden church records. When complete, the index will be the single largest point of access to information contained in the historic parish registers of Sweden. The free index will link to images of the original records hosted by the National Archives of Sweden (SVAR). In addition to the free public index that will be made available, SVAR might charge a nominal fee for public patrons who want to view or print the images.
FamilySearch is the global leader of online indexing. It launched its online indexing program in 2008, and tens of thousands of volunteers recently helped reach another major milestone by indexing their 250 millionth name. FamilySearch currently has 65 online indexing projects underway.
For this project, FamilySearch will create digital images of the Sweden church records provided by SVAR. Volunteers worldwide will then use FamilySearch’s Web-based indexing tool to view the digital images and extract only the desired information from the image. That data will then be processed and published online in searchable indexes linked to the digital images.
Volunteers need only Internet access and the ability to read Swedish to contribute to this historic effort. A unique quality control process ensures a highly accurate, finished index. Each document is transcribed by two different indexers, wherever they are in the world. Any discrepancies in their two extractions are then forwarded to a third volunteer—an arbitrator—who makes any needed corrections between the two interpretations.
The project will start with records from Örebro, Uppsala, and Södermanland counties. Indexing will begin with the earliest year available for each parish and continue through 1860. A typical downloaded “batch” (group of records) will take a volunteer about 30 to 40 minutes to complete. The indexing utility has built-in tutorials and helps. Anyone interested in volunteering for the Sweden Church Records project can do so at indexing.familysearch.org.
I hope some of these new records will be transcribed into English for those of us who don't read Swedish!
Hejda.
The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 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.
Volunteers to Bring Historic Sweden Church Records Online
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
FALKÖPING, Sweden—FamilySearch and Svensk Arkivinformation (SVAR), a division of the National Archives of Sweden, announced today the launch of the largest online indexing initiative undertaken to-date. The two groups unveiled plans to engage Swedish volunteers throughout the world to help create a highly searchable, free online index to the historic parish registers of Sweden—200 years of recorded Swedish history as documented in the Sweden church records—comprising over 400 million names.
In 1608 the Archbishop of Sweden asked the clergy to begin making records of births, christenings, marriages, and burials of all the residents of Sweden. By 1686, they were conducting regular examinations of the population of each parish. The church records (often called “parish registers” or “church books”) span over two centuries and chronicle the vital life events of an estimated 418 million people who moved in and out of parishes in Sweden.
“The church records are a key source for genealogists seeking Swedish ancestors because nearly everyone who lived in Sweden was recorded in a church record,” said David Rencher, FamilySearch chief genealogical officer. “The challenge now is to make those records, which are written in Swedish, available to researchers worldwide,” concluded Rencher.
“We are very pleased with the excellent cooperation we have enjoyed for many years between FamilySearch and the National Archives to microfilm and scan the Swedish church records. Now we are going to create an index that will revolutionize the genealogy research in Sweden. The simplicity of finding and reading about one’s ancestors on the Web in the millions of scanned records will attract many beginners of all ages,” said Anders Nordström, director of SVAR. “To the academic researcher, this is an entirely new means. It makes it possible to do research within disciplines on a micro level, an extent that was never possible before now,” added Nordström.
The way Swedes passed on a family name throughout the centuries is another reason why the indexing initiative is so important to family historians. “Imagine being in a Swedish community 200 years ago and 10 out of 100 people have the same first and last name as you. That’s how small the naming pool was in Scandinavia,” said Jeff Svare, FamilySearch Scandinavian collection management specialist.
If you were Anders Andersson, your father could have been Anders. Your brother could have also been named Anders, as well as your uncle. To help distinguish which Anders Andersson you were referring to at the time, locals added the name of the farm (residence) of an individual to keep them straight. “Otherwise, when you’re trying to search for Anders Andersson today, your ancestor falls into the proverbial fog of same-named people and you don’t know who they are without the additional context,” added Svare. The FamilySearch index will include the residence or farm name from the individual’s vital record. This information has been extracted to assist patrons in identifying their Swedish ancestor.
The goal is to engage the Swedish community in creating a highly searchable, free online index to the Sweden church records. When complete, the index will be the single largest point of access to information contained in the historic parish registers of Sweden. The free index will link to images of the original records hosted by the National Archives of Sweden (SVAR). In addition to the free public index that will be made available, SVAR might charge a nominal fee for public patrons who want to view or print the images.
FamilySearch is the global leader of online indexing. It launched its online indexing program in 2008, and tens of thousands of volunteers recently helped reach another major milestone by indexing their 250 millionth name. FamilySearch currently has 65 online indexing projects underway.
For this project, FamilySearch will create digital images of the Sweden church records provided by SVAR. Volunteers worldwide will then use FamilySearch’s Web-based indexing tool to view the digital images and extract only the desired information from the image. That data will then be processed and published online in searchable indexes linked to the digital images.
Volunteers need only Internet access and the ability to read Swedish to contribute to this historic effort. A unique quality control process ensures a highly accurate, finished index. Each document is transcribed by two different indexers, wherever they are in the world. Any discrepancies in their two extractions are then forwarded to a third volunteer—an arbitrator—who makes any needed corrections between the two interpretations.
The project will start with records from Örebro, Uppsala, and Södermanland counties. Indexing will begin with the earliest year available for each parish and continue through 1860. A typical downloaded “batch” (group of records) will take a volunteer about 30 to 40 minutes to complete. The indexing utility has built-in tutorials and helps. Anyone interested in volunteering for the Sweden Church Records project can do so at indexing.familysearch.org.
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