brightsolid acquires Friends Reunited Group
You may have read in the news yesterday that 1911census.co.uk’s parent company, brightsolid, has bought Friends Reunited Group, which includes the Friends Reunited and Genes Reunited websites. We’re delighted to confirm that this is true.
We’re really excited by this development. In the future there will be opportunities for us to provide enhanced services for the customers of 1911census.co.uk, findmypast.com, and the Friends Reunited websites.
For now, the websites will continue to be run independently, so if you have any queries regarding accounts on Genes Reunited or Friends Reunited, please contact their Customer Support Teams as usual.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Now that the 1911 Census has been complete for sometime when will ” enhanced services ” such as viewing actual pages or transcriptions be available to subscribers to findmypast.com at no extra charge? We were told subscriptions would cover this later in the year once it was complete. Things have gone very quiet on this front!
August 17th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I agree with you Katie, is has gone very quiet. I too would like to know when a subscription service will be available. For too long we have been fobbed off by being told it will be later in the year (2009). Why can’t we be told it will be this year and when, 1911 must have at least a plan when it is going to happen.
Mark
August 17th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
PS. I very much doubt there will be NO extra charge for existing subscribers. I am sure there will an extra charge to veiw 1911, I hope I am wrong.
Mark
August 18th, 2009 at 3:20 am
I am very interested in the time you put down as when I posted a comment. It is now 18:42 (6:42pm)UK time (BST). I posted my two comments quite a few hours before you state.
Are you or is this site not in the UK?
Mark
August 18th, 2009 at 3:26 am
At a guess east of the UK some 8 1/2 hours ahead
Mark
August 18th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Looking at the times I am very confused now. The when looking at the feed it shows a differnet time when looking at the blog, I bet some clever clogs can explain it to me.
Thanks
mark
August 19th, 2009 at 3:08 am
I certainly wasn’t up at 7.38am on the 15th - I’m sure my post was put on the previous evening. Looks like Chinese time.
I look forward to an official response on both points. Perhaps they are all on their hols.
Katie
August 19th, 2009 at 5:53 am
My last post was put on at 18.35 18/08/09 and the time now is 21.16. We haven’t got to August 19 yet!
Any ideas about timescales for 1911 census being on findmypast yet?
Katie
August 20th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
A few months ago there was a very fast response from 1911 when a question/comment was put to them (on this blog), Ian Tester was very quick to reply and to be fair a lot of comments that were negative were allowed.
Both katie and myself have asked a couple of questions and no reply has been forthcoming, is there anybody there??
Mark
August 21st, 2009 at 10:36 am
@ Mark and Katie,
Apologies for the delay in getting back to you: holidays and work (especially the friendsreunited acquisition) have been getting in the way, so sorry to leave you hanging.
First of all, on timestamps on the blog - for some reason they had been set to US time - hopefully they are now reset closer to British Summer Time, as they should be. Apologies if we’ve accidentally made you look like insomniacs!
Secondly, on subscriptions - we are working on the final details of this, but unfortunately still don’t have an exact date for you. As soon as we do, you’ll hear about it here first, followed by a 1911census.co.uk newsletter and the findmypast.com newsletter, so make sure you’re signed up to them for the latest.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Ian,
Thanks for the reply,
Regards
Mark
August 21st, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Thanks, looking forward to it. As regards the time the US is behind us not 8+ hours ahead!
Katie
August 25th, 2009 at 7:40 am
I didn’t understand the time reply either.
August 30th, 2009 at 1:47 am
Genes Reunited has been a trainwreck for the last few years of ITV’s ownership. I hope it gets turned around quickly.
September 17th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Hi
Please could you inform me why i have to pay to view the 1911 census records.
I already subscribe to Ancestry.co therefore what timescale am i looking at to access the census as part of my subscription.
Ceri
September 19th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
It is still very disappointing, to be continually fobbed off that no date is as yet available for the addition of the 1911 Census to the subscription service.
I can’t believe a company that has just paid £25million for the Friends Reunited Group has not budgeted an exact date for the introduction of this service. If so it comes across as either a very unprofessional organisation or one that is trying to milk as much more from the very patient family historian and genealogist.
I believe the company will continue to dangle the carrot of this service to the anticipant family historian with no intention of bringing the 1911 Census to the subscription service this year.
I have spent over £100 on the 1911 site wnich would have bought me a full years membership to Find My Past. I am currently a member of Ancestry but would buy a full membership to Find My Past today if I knew that the 1911 Census was fully available. I feel reluctant to pay anymore on the pay to view service and I feel that not announcing the date for release of the 1911 is doing untold harm to the integrity of Brightsolid.
Please no more waffle lets have the truth?
September 21st, 2009 at 5:34 pm
@Ian: this information has been available on this blog for about a week - full details and pricing are now available.
@Ceri: The reason for the cost of the 1911 census has been covered in a number of other posts on this blog, but in essence, it cost millions of pounds to digitise the 1911 census and we are a commercial company, so we have to repay our loans! You’ll have to ask ancestry directly if and when they plan to introduce the 1911 census: in the meantime, it is available on subscription from October on findmypast.com, as covered by a more recent posting on this blog.