MyHeritage Launches Global Pro Bono Initiative to Document the Family Histories of Remote Tribes

Tribal Quest team members visit indigenous communities to create
their family trees and record their family stories online, preserving
them for future generations

TEL AVIV, Israel & WINDHOEK, Namibia & PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea–(BUSINESS WIRE)–MyHeritage,
the fastest-growing destination for discovering, preserving and sharing
family history, unveiled today a new initiative — Tribal
Quest — to record the family histories of communities that lack
access to modern technology.

MyHeritage has completed its first two Tribal Quest expeditions to
Namibia and Papua New Guinea, meeting elders and families of the Himba
people in Namibia, and different tribal groups in Papua New Guinea.
Collaborating with local guides, MyHeritage teams spent three weeks in
each destination, interviewing hundreds of community members, taking
thousands of family photos, gathering information at cemeteries, and
attending local community events and rituals. The teams then processed
all the data they gathered, cross-correlated and tagged it, and
organized the family history information of over 6,000 members of tribal
communities in 55 richly-detailed family trees. This information is now
saved online on MyHeritage, preserving cultural heritage and personal
family histories of tribal people forever.

At one of the villages deep in the rural Kunene region of Namibia,
Tribal Quest team members met Mbunguha, a village elder who recounted
family stories going back many generations. Mbunguha’s parents told him
that he had been born during a particularly intense drought, marking a
tough period for his family. He now worries about the effects that
recent repetitive droughts, and the resulting economic instability, will
have on his community. With the traditional Himba way of life now in
decline and globalization and urbanization on the rise, Mbunguha is
concerned that many family traditions will be lost. Mbunguha was eager
to participate in the project and have his family history recorded to
ensure that it is not lost for the next generations of the village.
Mbunguha’s family tree — and those of his clan — are now preserved
online on MyHeritage.

Further expeditions to other remote destinations are currently being
planned.

“Across a wide range of diverse cultures and traditions, we all have
family in common; we all learn from and honor our ancestors,” said Golan
Levi, User Experience Expert at MyHeritage and founder of the Tribal
Quest project. “This project aims to allow people around the world — no
matter where or how they live — to save their ancestors’ legacies
forever, for the benefit of their descendants, and our descendants.”

“We are privileged to be the global destination of choice for millions
of people interested in discovering and preserving their family
history,” said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. “We love
combining our work with pro bono projects, utilizing our technologies
and our enthusiastic staff to bring the benefits of genealogy to more
people. With Tribal Quest we are preserving diverse cultural heritage
that is at risk, and doing it uniquely at the level of individuals and
families. If we don’t do this, nobody else will, and therefore we must
do it.”

The Namibia expedition is showcased online at www.tribalquest.org;
Papua New Guinea expedition materials will be added soon. Visit the
website to learn more about the project, view photos and read stories of
the Himba people, and to get involved.

View
the Tribal Quest introduction video.

About MyHeritage

MyHeritage is the world’s fastest-growing destination for discovering,
preserving and sharing family history. As technology thought leaders,
MyHeritage is transforming family history into an activity that’s
accessible and instantly rewarding. Its global user community enjoys
access to a massive library of historical records, the most
internationally diverse collection of family trees, and groundbreaking
search and matching technologies. Trusted by millions of families,
MyHeritage provides an easy way to share family stories, past and
present, and treasure them for generations to come. MyHeritage is
available in 42 languages. www.myheritage.com

Contacts

MyHeritage
Aaron Godfrey, +1-347-542-7902
VP Marketing
aaron@myheritage.com