Israeli MyHeritage.com Buys BackupMyTree, Sixth Acquisition

MyHeritage Ltd., a family network on the web, announced the acquisition of BackupMyTree LLC, a free and automatic backup service for family tree data.

The move represents the sixth acquisition by MyHeritage.com, expanding its technology leadership and range of family-history related services enjoyed by millions of families around the world.

One year after launching, BackupMyTree has established a new era of free research for genealogists and family history enthusiasts, with its backup service protecting more than 9TB of family tree data. MyHeritage.com will continue to maintain the service and keep it free.

"As the leading international destination for families to explore their history, share memories and keep in touch, we understand the enormous value users place on protecting their family tree data," said Gilad Japhet, founder and CEO of MyHeritage.com. "We believe that BackupMyTree’s cutting edge client-to-cloud technology has massive potential and share its mission of preserving family history, making this a natural and synergistic move for us. We look forward to continuing to provide an excellent free backup service and exploring ways for BackupMyTree to benefit existing MyHeritage.com users and vice versa."

By automatically finding family tree files and creating a remote, off-site backup, BackupMyTree’s software ensures protection of family tree data, preventing loss of years of work due to a computer disaster such as a virus or hard disk crash. Compatible with major genealogy applications, offering anywhere access and instant retrieval of family tree data in multiple revisions, BackupMyTree has become the industry’s go-to address for backup. The service counts the experienced genealogists as its users, who rely on BackupMyTree to store and protect their extensive and often lifetime’s worth of family research.

Renowned genealogist Dick Eastman reviewed the service in January 2011 and praised it: "I rarely recommend specific products but I am recommending this one. BackupMyTree should be installed on every genealogist’s Windows computer."

"BackupMyTree proved to be an instant hit with family history enthusiasts, giving them peace of mind that their family tree research is safe and secure," said BackupMyTree’s Founder and CEO, Cliff Shaw. "As our team shifts focus to our new venture, the world’s largest free genealogy search engine Mocavo.com, MyHeritage.com will undoubtedly be an ideal home for BackupMyTree, with extensive resources to support and maintain it. We rest assured that BackupMyTree will be in very good hands."

MyHeritage.com holds an international registered member base of 60 million users and offers its services in 38 languages. Following a string of family network acquisitions, most recently Polish family network Bliscy.pl, European family network OSN GmbH and Dutch Family Network ZOOOF, MyHeritage.com has become a widely used free service for connecting families to their past and to each other.

BackupMyTree is the second company that MyHeritage.com has purchased from serial entrepreneur Cliff Shaw, having acquired Pearl Street Software, makers of GenCircles.com and Family Tree Legends, in 2007. MyHeritage.com continues to run both GenCircles.com and Family Tree Legends, and has made the Family Tree Legends software and record collection free.

BackupMyTree finds and backups industry standard GEDCOM files as well as data files created by Family Tree Maker, Personal Ancestral File, Legacy Family Tree, RootsMagic (version 4 or later), Family Tree Builder, Family Tree Legends, Ancestral Quest, Ancestry Family Tree, Reunion for Mac and GenoPro.