The treasure hunt is at its prime as family history research has grown to become a popular hobby on the Web.

"People are very interested to know where they came from," said Lynette Brimhall, a consultant of the BYU genealogy center, the second biggest family history center in the world.

Online family history businesses have had major success in the Utah Valley and continue to multiply in customer numbers.

"There is a lot of really rich information available online ... not just names and dates," said Mary Dondiego, a spokeswoman for MyFamily.com. "Instead of having to look at microfilms in the library, the actual scanned image of the hand written census records shows up on the screen."

Dondiego said online family history provides personal information rather than just facts to fill in pedigree charts.

"Our online family history business provides information such as actual ship passenger lists where people can see which ship an ancestor immigrated on, historical newspaper collections, wedding dates, anniversaries and personal accomplishments," she said. "There is a certain draw to family history. It's kind of like a treasure hunt. Every little bit of information helps some one find out who they are, where they came from and how they are connected to their ancestors."

The treasure hunt requires much time but the use of the Internet makes it convenient, Dondiego said.

"It really makes sense to use the Internet," she said. "You can sit at your own computer and search through literally billions of records in a matter of minutes just by clicking your mouse."

Rick Mathews, a consultant at the BYU genealogy center, has utilized the online family history resources.

"I have even created my own family Web site on MyFamily.com because I can secure information with my family and can post information and exchange ideas," he said.

Mathews and Dondiego agree online genealogy is not just concentrated on members of the LDS Church, who often feel obligated to do their genealogy for religious purposes, because there are subscribers from all over the world in different religions.

MyFamily.com has 1.5 million subscribers and because family history research is one of the most popular hobbies on the Web, 29 percent of the Web population has engaged in this research, Dondiego said.

"The main target audiences are middle-aged women ... about the age of 35," she said.

Myfamily.com Inc. is the umbrella company that owns Ancestory.com, Geneology.com, Familyhistory.com and Rootsweb.com.

Dondiego said Rootsweb.com is a free site and is the oldest and largest free genealogy community site where everything there is user submitted.

Ancestory.com is the largest collection of family history records on the Web with over 3 billion records, she said.

Geneolgy.com is the other popular family history site and focuses on family immigration and provides the family tree-maker software, she said.

Dondiego said all Web sites vary in prices, from $7.95 a month, which is a starter type of subscription, to a subscription that costs over a hundred dollars a year.
Copyright Brigham Young University 13 Feb 2004