New Website Alert: FamilyLink.com

Hi all!

Well, I heard it through the genealogical grapevine that there is a new website out there to help connect folks. It's called FamilyLink.com. Here is the press release:

FamilyLink: New Genealogy Collaboration Web Site Rapidly “Links” People at a Whole New Level

Geographic and language barriers minimized to improve genealogy research with launch of FamilyLink

Provo, UT, April 18, 2007 --FamilyLink, the newest social genealogy networking Web site created to rapidly link people across the world launched today.

"The recent surge in social networking sites demonstrates the need for people to connect around diverse types of interests" said Michael Tanne, Founder and CEO of Wink, a People Search Engine. FamilyLink provides a perfect venue for families, genealogists and family historians to share their common interests and heritage as they connect with one another and upload their photos, family tree, and family history."

FamilyLink has been created to facilitate genealogists in working together in ways that have never been attempted before in the genealogy world with a tool that is easy to use and understand.

"During the early years of Ancestry and MyFamily, I could hardly sleep. I was so excited about what we were building. I feel the same way about FamilyLink,” said Paul Allen, CEO, WorldVitalRecords.com.

Using FamilyLink, geographic and language barriers are minimized as individuals connect with their loved ones, research their family history, and preserve memories.

"For the first time ever, if I'm looking for an ancestor in a particular part of the world, I'll be a click away from the expert researchers who live there, and from others who have done research there," Allen said.

FamilyLink users can view the profiles of other individuals, communicate with individuals who have researched or are currently researching in their area of interest through the City Link feature, meet new individuals who also participate in the service, share photos, genealogical information, and post comments.

“One thing that is really interesting right now is that there really is nothing out there on the Web to help someone who lived in a certain city gather information from another city, unless they fly there. The need for this type of social networking definitely exists. FamilyLink allows people who are in different cities to connect with each other in an amazing way,” said Jason McGowan, Product Manager, FamilyLink.com.

Additional features include a news feed system, Ancestor Pages, announcements pages, email features, shared connections between WorldVitalRecords.com and FamilyLink.com, and will soon include a family tree.

“Putting FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com together is a great way to preserve, share, and grow your family tree,” said Barbara Renick, professional genealogist, nationally known lecturer, and author.

In the past genealogists were able to make connections with other genealogists. However to do so required a lot of time, and effort, two scarce resources for genealogists. FamilyLink is a tool that connects people in such a way that it makes everyone and everything more efficient, and will become even better as people join the site.

"As with other social networks, the more people that use FamilyLink, the more useful it will become to everyone else. So we invite you to join and encourage others to join as well, so that we will soon have members in all of the cities of the world--all helping each other to find and preserve their heritage,” Allen said.

Ok, so what do I think??? Well, it's definitely got a lot of potential to be a great site, but since it's still in Beta, there are quite a few bugs. I played around in there for a few hours this afternoon and ran into quite a few, but I think when all the bugs get worked out, it will be a great resource. I suggest folks go ahead and start up a profile and report the bugs as you find them. One feature I like is you can search to see if someone has your ancestor and if they don't, just create your own ancestor page. It looks like it may be a collaborative effort, kind like Ancestry's one world tree....but hopefully not as confusing! If you click on an ancestor page, for instance this one of MY ancestor, there is a section under their name that says "My Family" with links to all the profiles who share that ancestor. Right now, it's just me. Below that is a profile for that ancestor with as much info as you can put. I'm a bit frustrated with the ancestors profile section, and this is a bug I assume, but in the dates section, you can only use dates back to 1924! LOL I got around that and put the dates in the "location" field, so it worked out, and when the dates are fixed, I'll fix that. You can add a lot of information here, including a biography if you want!

Like I said, the site has tons of potential and you should go reserve your spot; hopefully the bugs will be worked out soon!