This was posted to another list that I subscribe to. It is interesting information about the LDS site. Genealogy site is a hit — 7 million times a day By Steve Fidel Deseret News staff writer The LDS Church plans to officially launch the world's largest genealogy Web site Monday morning during a press conference in its Family History Library, the storefront for the world's largest collection of genealogical records. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a public test of the site http://www.FamilySearch.org in April as it prepared for the formal launch. Genealogy is one of the most popular niches of the Internet, and the church's reputation for family history research makes the deployment of a church-run genealogy Web resource a natural. "Tests have already shown that www.familysearch.org may become one of the most popular sites on the Internet. It is already racking up millions of hits a day during its testing period," said an announcement from the church. A separate announcement listed traffic at the site at up to seven million hits per day. The site has search functions that direct users to individual names within massive databases, like the church's International Genealogical Index of 360 million vital records from the British Isles, North America and Finland, and 35 million names arranged by pedigree in the church's Ancestral File. FamilySearch.org also functions as a portal for other genealogy resources and has features to allow family history researchers to collaborate with others to share resources. The site will also collect and preserve research submitted to its database. There is no charge to use the site and no advertising on the site. About two weeks into the church's testing-period preview of the site, the Church Family History Department was honored by the Utah Genealogical Association, which made specific mention of the new Web resource. Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Presidency of the Seventy accepted the award as executive director of the department. "We are excited about our Family Search Internet genealogical service," he said. "FamilySearch will be a powerful research tool, and I am confident it will eventually become an even greater asset over time."