HistoryLines Announces Official Launch

Instant Life Sketches and Personal Timelines for Ancestors

The following press release and 30% lifetime discount offer was just received from HistoryLines. Disclosure: I met Jeff Haddon, co-founder of HistoryLines, at FGS 2014 in San Antonio, Texas, where he showed me HistoryLines. I then viewed it in beta, and I also received and took advantage of a lifetime 50% discount off the regular membership price available to beta testers. And next up from me is a blog post about using HistoryLines, but take a look at their press release and their offer. ~Caroline

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Site provides instant life sketches and personal timelines for ancestors, saving genealogists time

OSWEGO, Ill.—April 20, 2015—HistoryLines, a leading provider of historical solutions for genealogists and educators, today announced the official launch of historylines.com, a new website for users interested in genealogy and family history. The site allows anyone to better understand the lives of their forebears by describing the historical events and cultural influences that surrounded their lives. Users see their relatives in historical context with a personalized timeline and map, and can read a detailed, editable life sketch based on when and where their ancestor lived in history.

“After several months of large-scale beta testing, we’re very excited to be able to offer the HistoryLines experience to the world,” says Jeff Haddon, HistoryLines co-founder. “HistoryLines addresses two major pain points in the genealogy research process: the scarcity of personal details that tell an ancestor’s life story, and the time it takes to compose a life sketch from research results.” According to Haddon, HistoryLines hopes to dramatically simplify that process for genealogists and family historians.

“Anyone interested in giving HistoryLines a try can create their first two stories for free to explore all the features,” says Haddon. HistoryLines offers subscriptions at $9.99 per month or $59.00 per year. To encourage new users to try out the site, the company is offering 30% off new subscriptions forever with the promo code EARLYBIRD30. As long as the promotional subscriptions don’t lapse, the discount will continue indefinitely. The introductory offer is good through April 30, 2015.

In conjunction with the official launch, HistoryLines is introducing some new features that beta testers haven’t seen yet, including the ability to export and share their ancestors’ life sketches on social media and in PDF format. In addition, users are now able to pursue further research by accessing the source citations for all of the historical data that is presented.

Additional features include the ability to edit the existing life sketch and to add personal events to the timeline and story. Users can build a family tree on the site, or import their family tree via GEDCOM file upload, or from FamilySearch.org, thanks to HistoryLines’ partnership with FamilySearch.

Much of the technology and processes behind the HistoryLines site functionality is protected by a pending a U.S. patent. “As useful as the product is now, it’s only the beginning. We have a rich roadmap of exciting features and capabilities ahead of us. Our mission is to make genealogists’ lives easier,” says Haddon. Embargoed until 5:00 a.m. EDT on 4/20/2015

About HistoryLines
Formed in 2014, HistoryLines is dedicated to solving persistent obstacles to genealogical research and ancestral understanding. Its initial product offering, HistoryLines.com, is a subscription-based service that places ancestors in historical context and automatically creates an editable life sketch for each of them.

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