Published: Friday, Sept. 26 2014 11:23 p.m.
MDT/ Deseret News/LDS Church News SALT LAKE CITY —
The day that many LDS Church members have been looking forward to has finally arrived.
Last February, FamilySearch International announced that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would soon receive free personal subscriptions to the top three commercial genealogy websites in the world -— Ancestry.com, FindMyPast.comand MyHeritage.com — accessible from any location. As of Friday morning, that access has been officially granted.
(Use the link in the following paragraph to get instructions and access to download all three websites.}
To sign up for a free subscription, church members can go to familysearch.org/partneraccess and create accounts for each website separately. Church members ages 13-17 require parental permission to create their own accounts.
The monetary value of the combined subscriptions to the three commercial sites is substantial, said Thom Reed, a marketing manager at FamilySearch. This generous benefit grants church members access to more than 17.8 billion family history records, according to FamilySearch CEO Dennis Brimhall.
"Free subscriptions to the three major family history websites provide Latter-day Saints about 3.5 times the online content to help them identify their ancestors," Brimhall said in press release. "This is possible because of the great relationship we have with these companies, their generosity, and a recognition of the investment in time and tithes members of the church have invested in the shared records."
To sign up for a free subscription, church members can go to familysearch.org/partneraccess and create accounts for each website separately. Church members ages 13-17 require parental permission to create their own accounts.
The monetary value of the combined subscriptions to the three commercial sites is substantial, said Thom Reed, a marketing manager at FamilySearch. This generous benefit grants church members access to more than 17.8 billion family history records, according to FamilySearch CEO Dennis Brimhall.
"Free subscriptions to the three major family history websites provide Latter-day Saints about 3.5 times the online content to help them identify their ancestors," Brimhall said in press release. "This is possible because of the great relationship we have with these companies, their generosity, and a recognition of the investment in time and tithes members of the church have invested in the shared records."
The public will have free access to each website when visiting one of the 4,800 LDS family history centers around the world.
During the spring and summer months, FamilySearch began granting access to the three commercial sites on a limited basis with email invitations.
Todd Godfrey, Ancestry.com's senior director of global content, said Ancestry offers church members access to 14 billion searchable records as well as a larger collaborative community of 2.1 million subscribers that are actively pursuing their family history. It's a valuable collaboration, Godfrey said.
"Over the past 18 years, this community has created over 60 million family trees containing six billion ancestors. There are literally billions of new discoveries to be made," Godfrey said.
During the spring and summer months, FamilySearch began granting access to the three commercial sites on a limited basis with email invitations.
Todd Godfrey, Ancestry.com's senior director of global content, said Ancestry offers church members access to 14 billion searchable records as well as a larger collaborative community of 2.1 million subscribers that are actively pursuing their family history. It's a valuable collaboration, Godfrey said.
"Over the past 18 years, this community has created over 60 million family trees containing six billion ancestors. There are literally billions of new discoveries to be made," Godfrey said.