Of the top 10 genealogy sites, three are now owned by one company. The company launched its first site in 1996, after having published genealogy books and magazines for 13 years. Another popular site is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church's familysearch.org, which went live in May 1999, is a nonprofit site that draws more than half a million visitors per month, Mormons and non-Mormons alike. The site makes available millions of its ancestral lineage files.
Audiences also skew toward an older population.
Although the Internet is undoubtedly a helpful tool for avid genealogists, it doesn't solve every problem. Some certificates of birth, marriage, or death, records of very small church parishes and immigration documents can be very difficult to track down. Traditional genealogists have expressed concern that the information on the Internet makes it too easy for people to jump to the wrong conclusions about their ancestry. As with everything on the Internet, surfers must be careful to double-check their sources of information. Inc. All rights reserved.