Ancestry

Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, the company said to have provided access to approximately 10 billion historical records, to have 3 million paying subscribers, and to have sold 18 million DNA kits to customers. By 2022, this number had risen to 30 billion records according to the company. On December 4, 2020, The Blackstone Group acquired the company in a deal valued at $4.7 billion. In 1990, Paul Brent Allen (not to be confused with Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen or the Allen Holdings CEO Paul Allen) and Dan Taggart, two Brigham Young University graduates, founded Infobases and began offering Latter-day Saints (LDS) publications on floppy disks. In 1988, Allen had worked at Folio Corporation, founded by his brother Curt and his brother-in-law Brad Pelo. The service was initially to help members of the church to research their ancestors to support the church's practice of conducting baptisms for dead relatives/ancestors into the church. Infobases' first products were floppy disks and compact disks sold from the back seat of the founders' car. In 1994, Infobases was named among Inc. magazine's 500 fastest-growing companies. Their first offering on CD was the LDS Collectors Edition, released in April 1995, selling for$299.95, which was offered in an online version in August 1995. Ancestry officially went online with the launch of Ancestry.com in 1996. On January 1, 1997, Infobases' parent company, Western Standard Publishing, purchased Ancestry, Inc., publisher of Ancestry magazine and genealogy books. Western Standard Publishing's CEO was Joseph A. Cannon, one of the principal owners of Geneva Steel. In July 1997, Allen and Taggart purchased Western Standard's interest in Ancestry, Inc. At the time, Brad Pelo was president and CEO of Infobases, and president of Western Standard.