Over the past 12 years we've invested hundreds of millions of dollars in finding, licensing, scanning, indexing and making searchable more than 24,000 different collections — ranging from records to photos to biographies to yearbooks to historical maps. This information has helped literally millions of people connect with their roots.

The result of our investment is the web's largest collection of family history records, including the only complete U.S. Census Collection (1790-1930), the largest online collection of U.S. Military records and the largest online collection of immigration records. We add millions of new discoveries every week in the U.S. alone, and we’re actively expanding our international collections as well.

All this considered, we realize that the most important collection of family history information lies in your hands. It lives in your stories, photos, letters and papers —in your memories and those of your loved ones. So we’re also proud to provide Ancestry Family Trees™, which are perfect for preserving and sharing these precious assets. In the last year, Ancestry.com guests have added more than 350 million people to their family trees, along with photos and stories. Our member-contributed content is growing exponentially and globally, giving you more chances every day to discover the richness of your family history in ways you might never have thought possible.

We've become so used to search engines it can be hard to imagine the challenges involved with getting the correct historical record into the hands of the right ancestor. But picture this: A census taker in 1850 knocks on a door and attempts to transcribe the names, ages and occupations of the family within. In a doorway. With a quill pen. In the rain. He writes Wm instead of William. He spells the last name Towne, which the family later shortens to Town. His letter “s” looks like the letter “f.” And over the course of more than 150 years, the ink on the mite-ridden paper fades to near transparent.

Enter our technology. With several patents granted and more than a dozen pending, Ancestry.com technologists are rescuing forgotten history. Imaging algorithms act like magical decoders on invisible ink. History-smart search engines consider things regular engines ignore, such as the fact that Wm., Bill, Billy and Will are variants of William, that Bolen and Bowling don't look the same but are spelling variants of the same surname. And that’s only the beginning. We're working on hundreds more major enhancements to make Ancestry.com's search engines even better.

Ancestry Hints™ are another exciting feature we’ve added. Rather than requiring you to research everyone in your family individually, we use the information in your tree to do the searching for you. When we find a matching record, photo or member family tree, we let you know by giving you a leaf icon in your tree.

Our dedicated staff of more than 1000 employees and support staff work around the country and the globe — from Provo to London, San Francisco to Sydney and Berlin to Beijing — to help you discover, preserve and share your story. Representing a wide variety of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds, the thing we all share is that we've been touched personally by a magical moment of self-discovery in our own family story. We hope you will be as well.

For more information on Ancestry.com or our parent company, The Generations Network, please see our Media Room.