Lost Cousins.
A genealogy website putting lost relatives in touch with each other.
Client profile.
A start-up in the rapidly-growing field of genealogy, Lost Cousins was aimed at serious researchers looking for additional sources of information to exploit and share. The purpose of the site is to match researchers up with other people seeking information about the same person. The site owner wanted it to be able to work out the relationship between two researchers automatically, just through the ancestor information they submitted. Searching would be free, to encourage users to visit the site and populate it as quickly as possible, while it would be chargeable to see search results and make contact with relatives. It was calculated that it would need 100,000 registered users to offer a high enough probability of any enquiry returning a positive result.
"Every day this website puts together lost relatives, what better use of the internet. Popcorn did a great job as accurately matching people through their ancestors is very complicated "
Peter Calver - Director Lost Cousins
Popcorn delivers.
The site utilises information from two 19th century public censuses and Popcorn has integrated them into the site so that the large databases that derive from the censuses are accessible quickly and accurately. Navigation is clear and straightforward and as a result the site has acquired over 60,000 registered users in just a few months, with around 1 million ancestors added to the database. Most visitors are adding in 10-15 ancestors at a time, which will typically yield one match. By the time the site reaches its base target of 100,000 members, there will be a 50-50 chance of finding a match. The search algorithms built into the site ensure that it offers high levels of accuracy, while being more selective than other genealogical research websites.