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The findmypast.com website, part of British genealogy
company brightsolid, has been online for
awhile now with US census records including 1940, but brightsolid today announced
the official launch of findmypast.com.

In today’s press release, brightsolid positioned itself as David to market leader Ancestry.com‘s
Goliath. From the release (you can read
the whole thing here):

“We’re not used to thinking of ourselves as small”, says Chris van der
Kuyl, CEO of brightsolid, the world’s second largest genealogy company. “Our ambitions
are big and the launch of findmypast.com is a
major market entry. The truth is that it’s a growing market, with plenty of room for
both of us.”

“We aim to become the go-to family history site, first
for Americans of British and Irish descent, and eventually for all Americans”, says
van der Kuyl.

Brightsolid’s first product for the US market, the pay-per-view census
site censusrecords.com, launched
in February in conjunction with FamilySearch’s RootsTech
conference.

Now brightsolid’s US focus is on Findmypast.com,
which will offer family tree building plus
subscription or pay-as-you-go access to US census, vital and military records; plus
records from the UK, Ireland and Australia.

Those overseas records will include UK censuses, English and Welsh vital records,
local parish records, UK passenger departure lists, British military records, Irish
vital records and British newspapers.

Learn more about records coming
to findmypast.com here.

Update: Findmypast.com has an introductory
subscription offer of $4.95 per month for a World Subscription (normally $249.95
per year), which gives you access to all the aforementioned content.

Brightsolid, which has

18 million registered users across all its websites and more than a billion genealogical
records, boasted a growth rate last year of 75 percent. Last year, the British-focused findmypast.co.uk saw
4.5 million visits from outside Britain, with US residents supplying the largest portion
of those visits.

Following up on last
month’s reports that Ancestry.com is seeking buyers, brightsolid also used today’s
press release to squash any rumors that it wants to acquire Ancestry.com.