LEHI, Utah & TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MyHeritage, the popular family history network launched today a public awareness campaign to highlight the importance of preserving and sharing family photos.
Through its global initiative, “Treasure Family Photos,” MyHeritage encourages people to open their boxes of family photos from years gone by, learn more about the people who appear in these photos and preserve them online for future generations on their own family site. The campaign website, www.myheritage.com/photos, provides photo upload links and useful advice for unlocking clues to the past from photos, explains how to restore photos and care for them, and suggests creative ideas for getting the younger generation interested in their family history.
The initiative has been endorsed by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, which is the oldest and largest genealogical society in the United States, and is being run in association with image scanning and restoration service ScanCafe, with which MyHeritage partnered to make it easier for users to digitize their old photos at discounted prices. In addition, MyHeritage is permanently doubling its free photo storage allocation to enable users to upload and share more photos on their private family sites at no cost.
Since going live in 2005, MyHeritage users from around the world have contributed and shared family photos on the site, creating the world's largest international collection of old family photos online. The collection includes around 200 million family photos, some dating as far back as the 1840s. The photos that were shared publicly are searchable by name, date, location and keywords via SuperSearch, MyHeritage's powerful search engine for historical records.
Internationally known expert in photo analysis Maureen Taylor, an advisor to MyHeritage’s “Treasure Family Photos” initiative, said, “Old family photos do so much more than put a face to a name, they provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives of our ancestors. You can uncover a surprising amount of information from an old photo and illuminate your family’s heritage. Therefore it’s imperative to preserve these photos and the stories behind them for future generations. I like using MyHeritage to store family photos as its unique social platform makes it easy to share them with relatives and its historical record collections are a great place to learn more about your family story.”
“Family photos open a fascinating window to our past, capturing the essence of people, places and events that are dear to us”, said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. “Often stored in dusty albums and not shared, they are at risk of oblivion and destruction. Our message is clear – don’t risk losing these irreplaceable family treasures. Scan, upload, tag and share them on MyHeritage. They’ll add color and life to your family history, inspire relatives to learn more about their past and preserve your family’s legacy for generations to come.”
With a diverse user base, spanning every country and continent, MyHeritage is a gateway to a massive variety of family histories from different cultures, religions and ethnic backgrounds. MyHeritage offers a private and secure environment for storing photos and researching family history, and users can choose which information they wish to share.
MyHeritage’s sophisticated technology, Smart Matching™, fuels new family discoveries by matching profiles in different family trees, enabling users to discover and share photos with other users with whom they share an ancestral connection.
About MyHeritage
MyHeritage is a family history network helping millions of families around the world discover and share their legacy online. As technology thought leaders and innovators in the space, MyHeritage is transforming family history into an activity that’s accessible, exciting and easier than ever before. MyHeritage empowers its global community of users with unique social tools, a massive library of historical content and powerful search and data matching technologies. The service is available in 40 languages. For more information visit www.myheritage.com
