ProQuest and Ancestry.com Honor Family History Month with "The Amazing History of You"
October is Family History Month and a pair of genealogy heavyweights are teaming up to kick it off in a big way. From October 1 through 8, ProQuest, which creates library genealogy resources, and Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, are sponsoring "The Amazing History of You Sweepstakes," where a winner will receive free services from a professional genealogist to create a personal family history.
"Family History Month is great time for those who have thought about tracing their roots to move from interest to action," said Lynda James-Gilboe, ProQuest Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Customer Care. "Genealogy research is more productive and more accessible than ever before, even for beginners. Now, we're offering the opportunity to win time with a pro that will jumpstart a lucky winner's ongoing research."
First Prize in the sweepstakes is twenty hours of research time with a professional genealogist. Research time includes a customer interview and a written report and/or the creation of a private family tree on Ancestry.com. One Second Prize winner will receive a one-year subscription to Ancestry.com's World Explorer, and a third Prize will be awarded — Family Tree Maker software for PC or Mac. The Sweepstakes is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada (excluding Quebec), age 18 and over. The sweepstakes entry form will be available October 1-8, 2011 on ProQuest's Facebook page, www.facebook.com/proquest.
ProQuest's commitment to supporting genealogy runs deep. All year long, the company makes it easier to delve into family history with training guides and free webinars for genealogy databases, such as Ancestry® Library Edition and HeritageQuest® Online — which are found in libraries and on their web sites, enabling at home, e-research. Further, ProQuest supports libraries in their development of robust genealogy services for their communities. The company sponsors continuing education opportunities during Librarians' Days – genealogy pre-conferences – throughout the year including at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference, the National Genealogical Society Family History Conference, and the Federation of Genealogical Societies National Conference.
ProQuest also creates marketing materials for Ancestry Library Edition, HeritageQuest Online, ProQuest African American Heritage, and ProQuest Historical Newspapers so it is easier for librarians to spread the word about their online genealogy research databases. Materials include customizable posters, printable bookmarks, Web banners and icons, and more through its popular Library Marketing Toolkits. To learn more about the breadth of ProQuest's research resources, visit www.proquest.com.
About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with nearly 1.7 million paying subscribers. More than 7 billion records have been added to the site in the past 14 years. Ancestry users have created more than 26 million family trees containing over 2.6 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries that help people discover, preserve and share their family history, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.
About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)
ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world's knowledge — from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms. Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the delivery of complete, trustworthy information.
ProQuest's massive information pool is accessible through the all-new ProQuest® platform, which moves beyond navigation to empower researchers to use, create, and share content—accelerating research productivity.
This energetic, fast-growing organization includes the Summon™ web-scale discovery service, the new ProQuest Dialog™ service, and business units ebrary®, Serials Solutions®, RefWorks-COS™, and Bowker®.