Of course, it just has to be the mo church: the company, ANCESTRY.COM is run out of Provo, Utah! I have seen this company with the little green leaves advertised a zillion times on TV as a way to learn about your heritage. Movie Stars have even been on their commercials!

I just did look it up on Wikipedia and the above is what I found. It do NOT know for sure that the mormon church owns it, but everything I read on Wikipedia in the above paragraph points to that.

Why am I shocked that the church is now making a bundle on helping people to find their ancestors, I really shouldn't be, but when I did my genealogy years ago, it was all FREE access in the genealogical libraries and in the wards, and they had to beg members to do it for free. And it was for the purpose of saving the dead, right? A holy and oh so spiritual cause.

Apparently, they now don't care about people finding their ancestors for any other reason than making a HUGE buck, though, like I said, I could be wrong.

They seem to have conveniently crossed over with all the records they have in their possession for temple work where they got TITHING FOR PAYMENT from members to enter the temple and do work for their dead, to now a huge public program for anyone to learn about their ancestors, I have no doubt for a huge price.

If I am wrong and anyone knows this company is in fact NOT owned by the church, please let me know. I have just put 2 and 2 together after reading about Ancestry.com on Wikipedia, and that would be my best guess. The reason I really think this is that they are ALWAYS about the money!!!

The "History" section on the Wikipedia entry has an extensive history of the company's history and ownership.

Geez, people.

BYU offers a BA in Family History—Genealogy and I have heard that Ancestry.com was started and is owned by several professors connected with that program.

According to Bloomberg: "The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Provo, Utah. Ancestry.Com Operations Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Ancestry.com LLC."

Note the "Limited Liability Corporation" form of ownership. That would be the proper way for a group of professors to own the company while shielding themselves from personal liability. I doubt that TSCC would (or possibly even could) take ownership in that way.

According to the Wikipedia History Section on Ancestry.Com: "In October 2012, Ancestry.com agreed to be acquired by a private equity group consisting of Permira Advisers LLP, members of Ancestry.com's management team, including CEO Tim Sullivan and CFO Howard Hochhauser, and Spectrum Equity for $32 per share or around $1.6 billion."

Hell, it only seems like the Mormon Church owns everything. They really don't.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2014 08:10PM by Templar.

Well, thanks for explaining, I guess I didn't read far enough, and I don't really understand any legal stuff so when I got to Provo, Utah, I just assumed the worst about the church, as I usually do , and was wrong this time. I apologize- and thanks for the info!

No need to apologize. You are asking questions. That's good and is what this blog is all about. If more members questioned what TSCC was actually doing, the Mormon "reign of error" would soon end.

Keep those questions coming!

Pretty sure Ancestry.com is not owned by the Church based on meeting a few folks that work there and the fact that the company was publicly traded on the NASDAQ, then bought by private equity firm. I think the founders are Mormon, so no doubt they are tithing a bunch.

You can still do free genealogy via FamilySearch.org as well as a person (regardless of belief) who can go to the physical centers and do their research.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2014 08:17PM by EveEphraim.

I've looked at their site and all real info comes at a cost and I'm too fuckin' cheap to pay for it.

Ron Burr