WorldVitalRecords now FamilyLink.com

Mergers, name changes, new web sites - the pursuit of family ancestry is certainly keeping the gen business hopping. I wonder what's next?

World Vital Records, Inc. has changed its name to FamilyLink.com, Inc. which, according to the January 14 press release, "better reflects the company's mission of connecting families to one another through innovative online tools."

"We marvel at the opportunity that the Internet provides to build web sites and social networking applications that can literally reach millions of users. FamilyLink.com will be our umbrella brand for a whole portfolio of web sites, widgets, and applications that all help families get connected to each other and to the past," said Paul Allen, CEO, FamilyLink.com.

FamilyLink.com will continue to operate the WorldVitalRecords web site, with its 5,000 databases, nearly 1 billion records, and nearly 24,000 paying subscribers.

"We will continue to add new US and international records to the site every business day," said Allen. "Our strong emphasis on aggregating vital records and other family history materials from around the world will continue, as will our use of the World Vital Records brand on our genealogical products. However, the company's official name will now be FamilyLink.com, Inc."

The company said it will also continue to grow its FamilyLink.com social network that has attracted more than 47,000 customers and has doubled its site traffic already this year. It will also continue to operate the We're Related Facebook application, the #1 social application for families out of nearly 14,000 Facebook.com applications. We're Related has more than 2 million users and is
growing at a rate of 6,000 users a day. More Facebook applications are in the works.

"The FamilyLink.com name is more reflective of the broad mission of our company, which is to provide innovative tools to help families connect," said David Lifferth, President, FamilyLink.com.

"WorldVitalRecords.com will continue to provide hundreds of millions of vital records that family historians love, but as a company we are also creating tools and content for family members of all ages and interests."

"Our enthusiastic team of genealogists and IT professionals is excited to keep up the tradition we have had of delivering extremely high quality resources and tools to our users at a very low cost," said Lifferth.