Around 1.7 million surfers, or seven per cent of the total people online in the UK, researched their family history in April.

Internet research company Nielsen//NetRatings reveals that the number of people accessing websites in the genealogy sector has risen by 44 per cent in the past year, with people now spending almost 50 minutes per month on family history sites.

Gabrielle Prior, European internet analyst, said: “The internet is ideally suited to helping people research their family tree. Vast amounts of information from census details to birth, death and marriage details, as well as migration and parish records can now be accessed and searched online.”

Genes Reunited, a site owned by Friends Reunited, attracted a massive 61 per cent of all visitors to genealogy websites. Rootsweb.com and Ancestry.com were the second and third most visited genealogy sites, respectively.

www.nielsen-netratings.com

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