The following news release is from Paul Nauta, FamilySearch.

SALT LAKE CITY—Recipients of the 2010 FamilySearch Family history Software Awards were announced at the FamilySearch Developers Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 14 family history award recipients were recognized for their outstanding and innovative work in advancing products and technologies that integrate with FamilySearch’s emerging suite of products and services in the family history market

The annual FamilySearch Software Awards has been established to encourage and recognize software development that benefits the growing demands and needs of family history consumers. “The awards formally recognize the software achievements of those developers and companies that are making important contributions to the family history and genealogy industry,” said Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch developer services product manager.

The Best New Product awards were given to applicants in different platform categories. Products with specific features deemed important to the growth of the industry received the Best New Feature award. Community Player awards recognized individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the software developer community.

The following recipients were announced and awards presented at the FamilySearch Developers Conference:

Best New Product Awards

• The MagiKey for the “Best New Windows” product
• Arcalife for the “Best New Family History Web site”
• MobileTree for “Best New Mobile” product
• FamilyInsight for “Best New Macintosh” product

Best New Feature Awards

• OurFamilogy for “Best Research” feature
• SharingTime for “Best Collaboration” feature
• Genetree for “Best DNA” feature
• Ancestral Hunt for the “Best Geo-Mapping” feature
• FamilyPursuit for the “Best Groups” feature
• Photoloom for the “Best Media” feature
• FamilyChArtist for the “Best Print” feature
• AppleTree for the “Best Celebrity Tree” feature

Community Player Awards

• Gaylon Finlay, Incline Software, “Bug Hunter” award
• Michael Booth and Bruce Buzbee, Roots Magic, “Trailblazer” award

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Patrons can access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

We've all got a ton of photos, emails, files and Family history hanging around on our computers, but at the end of the day what happens to all this rich family history ?

Arcalife.com the Family History site announces full integration with FamilySearch.org. This integration further deepens the features and capabilities between the two sites.

arcalife.com was established as an online family history community where members can preserve their ancestry, scrapbook their memories, and securely share rich life content all in one place. arcalife has developed a wide range of tailored family history tools and services to allow members to capture their ‘past’ and ‘present’ life content for ‘future’ generations. 

The concept for arcalife.com was born from the most basic of human needs; to leave a lasting imprint of our lives and experiences. arcalife has developed a range of tools and services to enable members to research their family history, build a family tree, and securely share and collaborate with family members in building a ‘Digital Estate’ to pass to future generations.

FamilySearch is the largest family history organization in the world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. For over 100 years, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide. 

Aside from access to millions of free records, the integration will bring a host of new resources to arcalife members. Furthermore, FamilySearch members are now able to use arcalife.com to do more with their records, research, and family tree- including:

·         Add rich Media Content to Trees and Events - Photos, Videos,  Records, Documents, and Timelines

·         Synchronize Trees and Events Between the Two Sites

·         Make Family History Scrapbooks, Biographies, and Printed albums from memories, experiences and events

·         Print large size color Family Trees with a few clicks, up to size 36.1 in × 51.1 in

·         100% Secure & Encrypted, Gated Site for Storing and Sharing Family History 

 “…We’re excited about this new integration as our members will now have access to a wider range of records, and FamilySearch members can do more with their existing family history research on our site” says Paul Taylor, arcalife.com CEO.

Hi, and welcome to my weekly blog! The big news in the genealogy world at the moment relates to the news that the Chief Executive of The UK National Archives is leaving to take up a new position at the Financial Ombudsman.

The question on everyone's lips is what direction the institution will take under her successor? Given the upheavals witnessed recently, it is to be hoped that the emphasis on access to online collections is coupled with a return to core archival values, and a prioritization for cataloguing, specialist knowledge and onsite services.

I'm also involved in a campaign to retain public access to electoral lists, which is under threat from a government review. Hopefully I'll have more on this next week.

We're so incredibly excited about our innovative creation of our family history Life Cube that we want to shower you with HARD COLD CASH!

We're running a family history contest that is open until December 1st 2009 - the details are really easy and the rewards are high....

LIFE CUBE CONTEST REQUIREMENTS:

1. Build a Life Cube on arcalife.com or sign up through the Facebook Application.(It's free and easy to sign up.)

2. Share your Life Cube on Facebook OR Twitter.* (Don't forget to make your cube "public" in arcalife so anyone can view it.)

3. Most important step to officially enter: Share your Family Life Cube with us at arcalife by either including @arcalife in your tweet or post your Cube link to the arcalife Facebook Fan Page - this way, we'll definitely see your entry into the contest. You will receive notice you have officically entered at this time.

4. Get 5 of your friends or followers to either Comment on your Life Cube post on your Facebook Profile Wall OR Re-Tweet your Life Cube tweeted link on Twitter.*

THE WINNING Family History LIFE CUBE WILL RECEIVE $500 CASH. And in true social networking fashion, the first FIVE people to comment on your Cube post on your Facebook wall or re-tweet your Life Cube tweet on Twitter will also receive a cash prize of $50 each. Everybody wins! (For those of you who link your posts Twitter-to-Facebook/Facebook-to-Twitter, not to worry - we have it sorted and can measure where you posted and your first five people to count for the win.)

* Rules Apply.

Judging and awarding the winning Life Cube is based on inspiration and creativity. Life Cube only takes a few minutes to sign up, upload and publish photos and videos.

Here are a few examples of published Life Cubes to get your creative juices flowin':

Don't forget to hit the "Animate" button for the full effect :)

Growing Up - Family - New Baby
Little League Hockey Team
Ancestry