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Subject: [DABBADIE] Free Offer to US Immigration Records, ancestry.com
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:48:10 EST

Ancestry.com Extends Free Offer to U.S. Immigration Records

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:

PROVO, Utah, Nov. 28 -- Ancestry.com, the world's largest online family
history resource, today announced it is extending free access to the most extensive
immigration records collection online through the end of the year. On
November 9, the company released the most comprehensive collection of all readily
available U.S. passenger list records from 1820 to 1960, providing access to more
than 100 million names from the height of U.S. immigration. Ancestry.com
originally offered free access to its immigration records through November 30 to
celebrate the launch of the passenger list collection. Due to overwhelming
response, the company is now extending the offer through the end of 2006.


"The passenger list collection has struck a chord in communities, sparking
interest like we've never seen before," said Tim Sullivan, CEO, MyFamily.com,
Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com. "Each record in this collection is a
memorial to what was most likely the most important day in the lives of our
ancestors and millions of people are connecting emotionally and literally to these
records. To commemorate and honor their remarkable stories, Ancestry.com is
providing free access to the largest collection we have ever offered for the
longest period of time."

Ancestry.com has experienced its highest-ever site page views since the
launch of the passenger list collection. Average page views per day have increased
by 25 percent, from 12 to 15 million over the past month, and by more than
30,000 page views per day from new visitors. In its first week, the site
experienced a 26 percent increase in average unique visitors per day from the previous
month.

Ancestry.com is the only source for the largest compilation of passenger list
records available and fully-searchable online. An estimated 85 percent of
Americans have an immigrant ancestor included in this passenger list collection,
which took more than three years to digitize and transcribe and includes the
complete Ellis Island Collection, as well as records from more than 100 other
U.S. ports of arrival. The collection also provides access to more than 7
million original passenger list records and 1,000 digital images of actual ships,
allowing users to easily view and print these documents at the click of a mouse
from home. Of the 23,000 record sets available on Ancestry.com, this
collection is one of the most moving as it celebrates the courage, hopes, fears and
memories of millions of America's immigrant ancestors.

To memorialize and complement the collection, Ancestry has also launched the
Ellis Island microsite, an interactive glimpse into the immigration
experience. This unique site delves into the details of the entire immigrant experience,
illustrating the story of immigration from start to finish through original
photos, maps, first-hand accounts and oral histories from people who arrived in
America during this great immigration era. Users can access Ancestry.com's
Ellis Island site at www.ellisislandexperience.com.

Ancestry.com has received numerous emails and stories from users about their
breakthrough discoveries while searching the immigration collection:

"I knew when my uncle was born, that he had lived with his father in London
and had immigrated to the United States after WW II. Beyond this, I knew very
little. I entered his name in the search, gave a 10-year span when he might
have traveled and guessed that his departure port would have been London. Within
moments, I had found that he and his family traveled from Auckland, New
Zealand aboard the S.S. Orsovaon June 4, 1956, arriving in San Francisco 17 days
later," said Anto, an Ancestry.com customer.

About Ancestry.com

With more than 5 billion names and 23,000 searchable databases and titles,
Ancestry.com is the No. 1 online source for family history information. Since
its launch almost a decade ago, Ancestry.com has been the premier resource for
family history, simplifying genealogical research for millions of people by
providing them with many easy-to-use tools and resources to build their own
unique family trees. The MyFamily network of family history sites, of which
Ancestry is the largest, receive more than 9 million unique visitors worldwide and
450 million page views each month. (© comScore Media Metrix, September 2006.)

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