Friends and Genes Reunited Sold

[stonechat]

HI

Saw this
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article6742168.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=4947818

It seems ITV have sold Friends Reunited and Genes Reunited for a fraction of what they paid to Brightsolid, owners of Scotlands People and FindMyPast

And furthermore, they did it because they wanted to  get their hands on GR

Bob

[Marmaduke 123]

Thanks for this Stonechat. I hadn't read the detail of the sale of Friends Reunited, so hadn't realised it included Genes, let alone that it has been sold to Brightsolid.

I wonder what that is going to mean for Genes in the future? Integration with Findmypast maybe?

Anne

[ambers]

Thanks for highlighting it to us stonechat, I didn't realise either that it included GR either

Ambers

[maidmarianoops]

well the days seem to be over when we knew who owned what.

all we know is it will cost us


sylvia

[ladybird]

Ah well, guess that settles it then
I was toying with the idea of letting my sub lapse...finishes in April. I don't use GR much these days anyway, much prefer here 
another Sylvia

[IMBER]

Brightsolid, formerly Scotlandonline, is owned by Dundee company D C  Thomson of Dandy and Beano fame.  Brightsolid are a pretty innovative lot and they could be the first owners to really realise Genes Reunited's potential.  Just give them time before judging. Scotlandspeople is an official Scottish Government BMD source with Brightsolid providing the technical input. In partnership with the UK National Archives Brightsolid was responsible for providing the 1911 census for England and Wales online.

[MarieC]

Well said, Imber! This is interesting, thanks Bob.  I've never been a paid member of GR but have toyed with the idea.  Will wait and see how it goes under the new regime before I decide. 

MarieC

[sougher]

After toying with the notion to cancel my membership I've just renewed my subscription to Genes Reunited (at just under £10 as I've been a member for quite a while) and I'm very glad that I did, as I've broken down a brick wall that has seemed unpenetrable for years.   I contacted someone through GR who had on their family tree a member of my tree (my gt. grandfather Thomas May) to point out to them what I thought was a discrepancy.  Instead I not only found out that I was wrong, but that my gt. grandfather and his brother Peter Erazmus had an older sibling (Rebecca May) whom I knew nothing about, and the date of death of both their parents.   I had been led to believe that my 2 x gt. grandmother (Frances) had died, and that my 2 x gt. grandfather (Peter) had remarried and emigrated to the US with his second wife.   We have been searching for years to find the pair of them, but now the problem is solved, there was no remarriage in fact both of them died Peter first in 1843 and Frances in 1855.   So I'm very pleased indeed that I continued with my membership of GR.

[Nick29]

I've always said that GR is the best for making contacts (well, initially at least) - I cancelled my GR membership recently because I got so fed up with time-wasters.