Our History

Connecting with our past gives us a reference point, an understanding of why we are where we are, who we are and how these choices influence how we see the present. The below timeline shows the brightsolid family journey so far.

Since starting life as Scotland Online in 1995, brightsolid has been involved in some of the highlights of the internet.

June 1995

Scotland Online is founded in Dundee as one of the first Internet Service Providers in the UK.

September 2002

Scotland Online enters into a joint venture with the General Register of Scotland (GROS) to create ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk - the first genealogy resource online in Scotland.

December 2007

Scotland Online purchases findmypast.com from Title Research group, making us the second biggest provider of resources to the online genealogy community in the UK.

July 2008

Scotland Online is rebranded - we become brightsolid online innovation group.

January 2009

brightsolid digitises the 1911 census, seeing fantastic interest from family historians in this new resource through its dedicated website and findmypast.co.uk.

March 2010

brightsolid acquires the Friends Reunited Group from ITV.

January 2011

Launch of findmypast.com.au - our first venture outside Europe.

April 2011

Launch of findmypast .ie - an exciting new genealogy resource for Ireland.

June 2011

Our second data centre is commissioned in Dundee.