7% of UK online users and 8% of online Americans research genealogy

Searching for ancestors on the web is becoming increasingly popular, says Nielsen//NetRatings, with 1.7 mln surfers, or 7% of the total people online in the UK logging on to research their family history in April 2005. This makes the Genealogy category in the UK almost as popular as in the US, where 8% of online surfers visited the category in the same month.

The number of visitors to the Genealogy category has risen by 44% in the past year, and much of this growth has come from the increasing popularity of Genes Reunited. In April, 61% of all visitors to the genealogy category visited Genes Reunited, and its audience is now almost three times that of its nearest rivals in the category. Other popular genealogy sites include Rootsweb and Ancestry.com.