27 May 2005
A growing number of people in the UK are utilising the search power of the Internet to look up their ancestors, new figures have revealed.
According to Net Imperative, 1.7 million Britons hooked up to the World Wide Web in April to research their family history.
This figure equates to seven per cent of the total number of people who went online at one stage or another last month in the UK.
The increased popularity of this genealogy category means that associated searched are now almost as prevalent in the UK as in the US, where eight per cent of people used the Internet for this reason in April.
Web monitoring firm Nielsen//NetRatings found that there are now 44 per cent more people using the Internet for this purpose than last year, helped significantly by the vast popularity of Genes Reunited, run by the creators of Friends Reunited.
This particular site gained a 61 per cent share of the genealogy category traffic.
"The Internet is ideally suited to helping people research their family tree," commented Gabrielle Prior, European Internet analyst.
"Vast amounts of information from census details to birth, death and marriage details, as well as migration and parish records can now be accessed and searched online.
"The Internet also makes it possible to research family connections in other countries with ease."
The report also noted that the majority of UK Internet users who accessed genealogy websites were aged 35 or over and predominantly male, although the quantity of women logging on to research their family history has increased by nine per cent since April 2004.© DeHavilland Information Services plc
Keep up to date with industry and Nomensa news by signing up to Nomensa newsletters.
