FamilySearch Partnerships

The Inside Scoop on FamilySearch Partnerships

March 3, 2015 By Ellen Bahr

Did you know that FamilySearch.org now has over 60 certified partner applications (or ‘apps’)–and that number continues to grow! These partner apps include familiar websites such as FindMyPast, Research Ties, Ancestral Quest, and AllMyCousins.com plus many more. If you are a FamilySearch user, what exactly does this mean for you? It means you now have even more options and ways to assist your family history research, and some of them intend to make your research fun.

Partnering with FamilySearch simply means that these other websites are allowed to take information from FamilySearch and use it in their interface, helping you find more ancestors and broadening FamilySearch’s worldwide audience. Ryan Koelliker, partner services administrator for FamilySearch explained the reasons why they have partnered with so many other websites, and why they plan to add even more this year. With millions of people globally searching their ancestors online, there needs to be wider access to services and resources that caters to the needs of different cultures and users. After all, says Koelliker, “We deal with both the living and the deceased.” Even gaming apps are being introduced on FamilySearch. Why? Because we should stop thinking of family history as just a genealogy industry, says Koelliker, and more of an entertainment industry. After all, family history can be fun. Why not create gaming apps that will entice the young as well as the old?

To learn more about these partner apps, go to FamilySearch.org and scroll to the bottom of the home page. Three boxes appear. The middle box is labeled “App Gallery.” Click on “get started” to be directed to dozens of other links that will help you search millions of historical records online.