The findmypast.co.uk story

The findmypast.co.uk story begins in 1965, when a small group of leading professional genealogists and heir hunters form what was then known as Title Research. Since there were no online records, employees spent many long hours poring over microfiche machines. There were numerous office moves in these years to stay close to the Family Records Centre.

Title Research starts a project to create an online copy of the paper General Register Office birth, marriage and death records. The project is named "1837 online". A project team is formed, which includes Debra Chatfield, now marketing manager for findmypast.co.uk, and genealogy expert Stephen Rigden, who is now our records development manager.

Title Research has the innovative idea to put the newly digitised birth, marriage and death records onto a website so family historians worldwide can benefit from them.

Title Research consults with expert genealogists, including family history societies and the Society of Genealogists, on this monumental project.

We get a licence to publish the birth, marriage and death indexes online and launch the first incarnation of our website: 1837online.com.

Shortly after the website launch, we splash out on our first ever telephone for the office - our phone number even ends in 1837.

1837online.com makes its first £1 million this financial year and becomes a separate business within Title Research.

We publish the 1861 census for England and Wales. It\"s the first time this census has ever been published online.

We publish the 1891 census in March. In November, 1837online.com becomes findmypast.com to reflect the wider range of records we publish.

In January we publish our outbound passenger lists 1890-1960 in association with The National Archives. This project marks the first use of colour scanning by a family history website anywhere in the world. These records link family historians all around the world with their emigrant ancestors from the British Isles.

March sees findmypast.com starting discussions with DC Thomson publishing company (who publish The Beano, among other things). The idea is to create a combined family history business owned by DC Thomson. It would include findmypast.com and ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk

Title Research Group wins the Queen's Award for innovation for making the scanned birth, marriage and death indexes for England and Wales available online for the first time through findmypast.com. John Wastle and Peter Lancaster, findmypast's technical team responsible for digitising the records, proudly visit Buckingham Palace to collect the award.

We publish the 1881 census.

In August, findmypast.com buys US start-up company Pedigree Soft. Soon after, Pedigree Soft launches Family Tree Explorer, our first family tree builder.

On Christmas Eve, brightsolid (formerly Scotland Online and part of DC Thomson) acquires findmypast.com. brightsolid's chief executive Chris Van Der Kuyl heads up the team.

In January, as part of brightsolid, findmypast.com now has a licence to publish the 1911 census online.

In May, we publish the 1901 census online and in November we publish the 1851 census online.

We reach two million registered customers on findmypast.com.

The 1911 census is published on findmypast.com

In October, we celebrate the completion of our project to publish the 1841-1911 censuses. This made findmypast.com the only place to find the complete online census collection.

In December, findmypast.com becomes findmypast.co.uk to reflect the fact that we're a UK-based company.

In April 2010 brightsolid acquires Genes Reunited, Friends Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating, making them findmypast.co.uk's sister companies.

In May we make the monumental discovery of suffragette Emily Davison in the 1911 census – hiding in Parliament's crypt on census night. During the same month we also launch findmypast.com.au, providing a fantastic resource for Australasian family history records.

We sign a 10 year agreement with the British Library to digitise up to 40 million historic pages from the national newspaper collection. This will make large parts of this unparalleled resource available online for the first time.

We continue to add millions more records to our extensive collection, including over 9 million new records from the Society of Genealogists.

We start a fantastic project with the British Library to digitise UK electoral registers 1832-1932, along with records of baptisms, marriages and burials from the India Office archives. When we launch the collection in 2012, the records will be available online and fully searchable for the first time.

Findmypast.co.uk and the British Library continue to work together on the exciting project to publish UK electoral registers 1832-1932, as well as records of baptisms, marriages and burials drawn from the archives of the India Office. The project is scheduled for launch in 2012.