Genes Reunited thrives under ITV

It"s been a record year since the nation"s favourite broadcaster, ITV, teamed up with the UK"s largest genealogy and ancestry website, Genes Reunited, just over a year ago.

In 2006, an explosion in popularity for family history coupled with successful sponsorship and advertising campaigns has seen the number of ancestors listed on Genes Reunited more than double from 50 million to in excess of 100 million as people seek to learn more about their ancestors and trace long-lost relatives.

High profile sponsorship of ITV1 programmes Prehistoric Park and You Don"t Know Your Born, and a successful advertising campaign has sent registrations and page views through the roof.

Prehistoric Park (July-August 2006), an epic journey following wildlife adventurer Nigel Marven to rescue lost creatures and bring them back to the sanctuary of the present, saw an 83% uplift in page views on site compared to the same period in 2005.

In the first hour alone of You Don"t Know Your Born (January-February 2007), which saw well known personalities delving into their family history and rolling up their sleeves to do their ancestor"s job, Genes Reunited experienced a 450% increase in registrations compared to the same time on a normal day. This figure more than doubled for the same period in the second and third episodes, rising to 900%.

As a result, over 400,000 people joined Genes Reunited during the three week run of the show.

A successful advertising campaign, running throughout February, depicting a herd of elephants in search of their ancestors, resulted in the highest number of registrations in a single day at more than 30,000, up 400% on a normal day (30th January 2007).

Martine Parnell, head of Genes Reunited, said, "The popularity of tracing your family history continues unabated and programmes that delve into this topic satisfy the curiosity people have of discovering their ancestors. It"s fantastic to see people flocking to Genes Reunited to start their search and we believe this will continue for a long time to come, building on the great results we"ve already experienced."

Press Team : e. [email protected]; t. +44 (0)207 845 7800 or +44 (0)207 994 0149

In Australia, Vicki Dawson : e. [email protected]; t. +61 (02) 9836-3587

Jenni Hayward (Mission PR) : e. [email protected]; t. +44 (20) 7845-7800

Genes Reunited was launched in 2002 as a sister-site to the Internet phenomenon Friends Reunited. Since then it has grown to become the UK's largest genealogy website.

It marked a revolution in genealogy and ancestry by combining them with Internet social-networking. Members are able to build their family tree by posting it on the site and investigating which ancestors they share with other members. They can also search historical records such as census, birth, death, marriage and military records.

It currently has over 11 million members and over 750 million names listed. One new name is added to the site every single second.