
After many years at the service of genealogists, I am stepping down as President and CEO of Geneanet.
Since co-founding the Geneanet site nearly 27 years ago, I am very proud of what it has become.
Geneanet now hosts more than 1.8 million family trees in more than 25 countries, and offers rich content and features to genealogists, supported by a team of 35 people based in Paris.
Geneanet is based on a hybrid model. It is both a company with employees, customers and a complete and attractive “Freemium” offer. It is also an extraordinary community of members who actively participate in helping and sharing.

Geneanet is millions of contributors who share their trees and above all volunteer to participate in our many projects: digitization of archival registers, Save our Graves, collaborative indexing, Postcards collection, historical and geographical collaborative trees, the “Now and Then” project, to name just a few among our many projects.
The paradox of Geneanet’s model is that our Premium subscribers not only pay for Premium services and content, but also support all the services and content we offer for free as well as all our collaborative projects activities.
So, I would like to thank all our members, whether they are free or premium, contributors or not. It is thanks to your faithful support that Geneanet exists.
I would also like to thank the whole team of Geneanet employees. They are all very attached to what makes the spirit of Geneanet. I am also grateful to Ancestry for supporting our model with the many collections we have been able to add to our Premium offering.
What’s next?
On the Geneanet side, continuity is assured. Christophe Becker, Geneanet’s Director of Operations for the past 20 years, will become the new President. He is one of Geneanet’s key people and I have full confidence in him to continue to improve and develop, with the whole team, the Geneanet we love, at the service of all genealogists.
On my side, in the short term, I will finally be able to devote my time to the development of a cause that is particularly close to my heart: the creation of a foundation for the study and development of Biotherapies. I invite you to visit the website to learn more.
Thank you!
Jacques Le Marois
Co-founder and former president of Geneanet
5/21/23
Thank you for your many years of service in helping to unite individuals and families with their ancestors and their descendants.
Good luck and best wishes with your future interests.
5/6/23
Thank you for your time, effort and service
4/28/23
Thank you Jacques for your long and dedicated service. Geneanet will surely miss you.
All the best with your new projects!!
4/26/23
Thank you.
4/23/23
Thank you, and may you have continued success in your new project.
4/23/23
Thank you. Best of luck to you!
4/22/23
Thanks for your previous contributions! Best wishes with your future plans and activities!
4/22/23
I love your website ..
Change is always good ..
You will be missed ..
Good luck with your new projects .
4/20/23
Thank you for all you do. Continued success to you.
4/20/23
Best wishes for your future endeavours
4/20/23
Dear Monsieur le Marois,
Thankyou for your email. Is there any more information of your successor?
4/19/23
Thank you for all your hard work and contributions to helping people with their ancestry. I hope for you the best on your next journey!! Terra
4/17/23
Thanks for your leadership. I have learned much from the site over the years.
4/17/23
Well done Jacques for your and Geneanet’s efforts over the past. It has allowed me to trace my French ancestry and even come up with a few surprises on the! Enjoy your rest and good luck in the future.
4/17/23
Thanks for all you have done. My your future endeavors bring you more successes.
4/16/23
Thank you for all you have done, and I wish you the best in your future endeavors. You have left all with such great possibilities in our searches. Thank you for all you have done.
4/16/23
Thank you Jacques for your founding vision and continued success for Christophe, as Geneanet goes forward.
4/16/23
Goodbyes are sad, but offer hopeful opportunities. I hope for all the best for you since you have created the best opus to come from Europe genealogically.
4/15/23
I wish you the best for your new road. God be with you. I will be adding the premium that have used in the past. I have bein on here for 12 years. I am the great grand daughter of Victor Emile Marie Genez and Jeanne Marie Virginie Schevingt from (Metz Paris and Amiens France Thank you for all the work Geneanet
4/15/23
Merci beaucoup pour votre temps et vos efforts.
4/15/23
Thank you so much for your service. This is indeed a great genealogy site.
4/15/23
Nagyon szépen használható oldal. Személyes munkájához sok sikert kívánok!
4/15/23
Thank you and best wishes.
4/15/23
Thank you for your service!
4/15/23
Thank you for your contribution to genealogy and providing such a solid platform for people to do their research from.
4/15/23
Thank you for creating a wonderful website. Good luck to you!
4/15/23
Thank you for your many years of service to this website. You will be missed.
4/14/23
Thank you for your service and best wishes for your future endeavors.
4/14/23
Thank you for Geneanet. I wish you continued success in your new venture.
Chesterz – Czesław Żywicki
4/14/23
Thank you. This site has filled in much of Family Tree.
4/14/23
Thank you so much for this great web site!
4/14/23
Thanks Jacques, I always looked forward, over the years, to continuing my research here! Best of luck, –Barry
4/14/23
Thank you for your dedication and perseverance in tracing my ancestors in Mauritius, it has been invaluable. With your help I have a much better knowledge of their lives. It was so good to converse in English and made it much easier for me. I wish you every success with your new venture. With very best wishes.
4/14/23
Thank you for creating this great site for genealogists, I hope that it continues your good work. There comes a time for all of us to rest from our labours…..enjoy yours.
4/14/23
Thank you, and best of luck in your new ventures
4/14/23
I am a regular user of Geneanet, and it has provided much useful information in building my tree, for which I am very grateful. Kind regards.
4/14/23
You found information that enabled me to go back as far as the late 1400s with my French ancestors.
This is something I have wanted to know since I was a child. Thank you so very much and best wishes in your next accomplishments.
4/14/23
Geneanet has been a blessing to me. I have gained valuable information on my French ancestors. Thank you for your work. You have opened many doors for us.
4/14/23
I love Geneanet! It is THE place where I can learn more about my French ancestors. Thank you for your wonderful work.
4/14/23
Thank you so much! Through this site I have been able to find my father’s ancestors that he looked years to find and never did. Good luck on your next endeavor.
4/13/23
Wishing you all the best and expressing my gratitude for all your work on here, many thanks for helping me add more family to my tree. Once again many thanks and Good Luck
4/13/23
Thank you for everything!!!!
4/13/23
I echo many others in Thanking you and best wishes on your new journey. Geneanet has truly been a great help not just to find records but also to connect people who have actually met in person traveling thousands of miles and helping to resolve family mysteries. BONNE CONTINUATION de la part de notre famille aux US
4/13/23
many thanks for geneanet
4/13/23
Vada con dio Jacques on your new venture. & thank you for co-founding this platform. Member since 2009.
4/13/23
Congratulations on your retirement. I wish you well in your endeavors. I like working on genealogy on Geaneanet. It’s a great website!!
Best Wishes!!
Joe Morgan Piedmont, Oklahoma, U.S.A. (a suburb of the great city of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma!!)
4/13/23
Thank you for your dedication, wishing you all the best in your future projects.
4/13/23
Without Geneanet I know I would never found my way round so many of the complications involved with multiple marriages. This comes to you with my thanks and good wishes for all you undertake in the future.
4/13/23
Wishing you the very best in your future endeavors. Thank you for all your work with Geneanet.
4/13/23
I have loved using Geneanet recently on occasion for my complex Pedigree family tree. It has often provided a missing date ,spouse,or relative Thank you so much for this interesting, helpful, and rewarding resource.Best Wishes.
4/13/23
It is most challenging (and very brave) to leave a project after 27 years of dedication and enthusiasm. Congratulations on what has been accomplished. Your desire to reach out with your bountiful energy into another field is refreshing. I am sure all users join me wishing you and your family all the very best in your future.
4/13/23
Thank you for setting the site up and running it for so long. Good luck for the future!
4/13/23
Sorry that you are leaving but thank you for all your dedication and all your hard work and all the best for your future
4/13/23
I wish you all the best in your future endeavours and thank you for Geneanet. It has been of invaluable help to me in researching my family trees, and I greatly appreciate its user-friendly format.
4/13/23
From day one of your website you have changed lives for the better. I firmly believe there is no other family history website as good as Geneanet and never stop recommending it to others. Thank si much and wish you every success in your next endeavours.
4/13/23
Congratulations on your many years of service ,I have not been able to use this site as much as I needed to, all the best on your new endeavours.
4/13/23
Just wishing to echo other’s sentiments Jacques..Thank you! And all the best for the future.
4/13/23
Thank you for a great site. I appreciate it very much. I believe it is the best resource in so many ways. I wish you more great successes in your future. Jeanne Bornefeld
4/13/23
Thank you!
4/13/23
thanks and all the best Jacques
4/13/23
Thanks Jacques, you, with your team did a remarkable job!
Succes with your new project!
4/13/23
Geneanet is and was a “God sent” program in helping me find my ancestry. Thank you for all your efforts that made it possible.
4/13/23
Bonne chance Jacques! Your work has brought people closer, a much needed aspect in today’s world. Merci beaucoup.
4/13/23
Best of luck to you Jacques and thank you for what you have given to us all. Wishing you all of the best in your next chapter S. Powers
4/13/23
Thank you and good luck!
4/13/23
Merci beaucoup, Jacques !
4/13/23
Thank you for all you have created for us, to reach out and touch our ancestors.
4/13/23
Many thanks, Jacques. You should always take the time to smell the roses. Enjoy your next adventure. Best wishes Judy McCutcheon
4/13/23
Thank you for all your hard work as CEO of Geneanet. Wishing you the best of luck for the future.
4/12/23
Thank you for a job well done and success in the future.
4/12/23
Jacques,
Merci pour tout ce que vous avez fait et bonne chance dans vos projets futurs.
Michelle
4/12/23
Geneanet has been a great resource for me aiding in research of my French ancestors. Thank you Jacques.
4/12/23
Thank you Jaques, for your dedication and hard work over the years in Geneanet, but as an Autoimmune Disease sufferer (Myasthenia Gravis) I am so happy to hear you are leaving to work on Biotherpies!! I wish you every success in your new career, thank you again, Angela
4/12/23
Thank you for your service to us all. Good luck in your future.
4/12/23
Good luck in your new adventure. Thank you for your service to GeneaNet and us.
4/12/23
Many thanks Jacques for shaping Geneanet in the form as it has become now…Altough I dont use it not so often anymore, Geneanet is a great tool to dive into the past and find back your familiy roots .
I wish you good luck and lots of success in future carreer and challenges
4/12/23
Jacques, we much appreciate the visionary resource you have created that is a critical element of bringing the world together literally!!! Best wishes, Marc Hayes
4/12/23
Wishing the very best towards your future endeavours.
4/12/23
Pres. Jaques LeMarios, Thank you for your wonderful site and sharing with many other family trees sites. You have given many answers in looking for other children, and maiden names of wives and Parents. Thank you for your intergrated systems with other trees. We can not do with your services.
Thank You, Russell Hardwick
4/12/23
Thank you for your time. Freely given selflessly.
Kind regards,
Joanne VanRossum
4/12/23
Best wishes on your new adventure!!
4/12/23
All the best in your new environment.
4/12/23
GeneaNet has proved to be an exceptional resource for understanding the French ancestry of my family. Good wishes in your new endeavors and again thanks for the 27 years you spent in developing this fine resource.
4/12/23
You and your team created something beautiful! I wish you the best in your future endeavours.
4/12/23
Thank you very much
4/12/23
Thank you for many years of service to the families who have searched for their roots and family histories. We appreciate your dedication to our stories.
4/12/23
thank you for all that you have done, and best wishes in your new venture
4/12/23
Merci
4/12/23
Thanks for all you have provided us with for the research of our ancestors. Best wishes for the next development tasks. Thank you
4/12/23
Je vous envoie, cher Monsieur Le Marois, mes meilleurs souhaites pour vos nouvaux traveaux, et vous remerci pour les ans de service aux membres de Geneanet.
4/12/23
MERCI JACQUES LE MAROIS! Thank you for all the wonderful work you have done for our French Ancestors. When you love what you do, it is not work. I can see that you put your heart into this project and I am very grateful. Enjoy your next endeavor and may it lift your heart even higher. God Bless you!
4/12/23
Thank You for your service!
4/12/23
I really enjoy the Geneanet Website. Good Luck on your new project.
4/12/23
Merci monsieur Le Marois et a bien tot. Job well done, sir. Best wishes in your new endeavors.
4/12/23
Merci beaucoup pour votre devouement pour la cause noble, celle d aider a faciliter la recherche de nos parents éloignés. Merci merci.
4/12/23
Thank you for your services and wish you well for the future.
4/12/23
Congratulations and best of luck to both! My family is from Ukraine and have recently learned Ukrainians went to Paris to work. I would love to find my family there. Thank you!
4/12/23
I have found lot’s information on grandfather and my Corsican extension family using Geneanet
4/12/23
https://gw.geneanet.org/pattisalt92?lang=en&iz=0&p=violet+may&n=cooper
Thank you sir. for a great family history site very interesting and inspiring. A few years back I thought about my great grandmother so I typed her name in Google search violet may cooper Pirton where she was born and there was family tree and desendent chart which goes way way back in time kind regards darren
4/12/23
Thanks to you I have found so many ancestors on my Swiss and French side, good luck with your new project!
4/12/23
Being fairly new to Geneanet, I find it to be the best platform for displaying a family tree, mainly because it prominently displays research Notes. Thank you Jacques for making Geneanet a quality site.
4/12/23
Good luck with your quests
4/12/23
I have enjoyed using your creation Geneanet and appreciate all you have done for so many searching their origins. Bon voyage to your next venture!
4/12/23
Jacques, I have watched the growth of Geneanet with great interest. You’ve done an amazing job growing it over the many years and it is being left in capable hands. Many best wishes to you for success in your new endeavor.
4/12/23
You gave me the impetus and the means for not only finding more of my living relatives, but vastly expanding my genealogy over the centuries. I could not have even attempted this without your resources!
4/12/23
Congratulation on work well done
4/12/23
Keep up the good work ,I enjoy looking up family on Geneanet
4/12/23
I have enjoyed using Geneanet. I hope it will not change with a new administration.
4/12/23
I have been using geneanet for years and have 3,000+ relatives in my file.
4/12/23
Thank you for all you have done!
4/12/23
Many thanks for Your work and good luck in the new stage of life!
4/12/23
Thank you for what you have created. Out of all the genealogy websites geneanet has been the most helpful and I am very grateful for the accuracy and continuity as I go farther back in time in search of my earliest ancestors. Thank you and good luck to you. What you’ve given me is truly priceless.
4/12/23
I have hopes that sometime someone will help me find my French Connection. In the meantime I wish you well. Just this week I joined a DNA study for research into Macular
Degeneration. I believe in the benefit to science possible by the contribution I make now to hand over the past to my family while making a better future for my descendants
4/12/23
I get in touch with geneanet when i had very little knowledge about genealogy in general and my ancestor in particular. Geneanet was so supportuive for my “research journey” which has still not come to the end and many endeavours, discoveries and adventures yet to come. Thank you for Geneanet and all the best for your new challenge.
4/12/23
thanks for helping me find some of my wifes ancestors in the channel islands
4/12/23
Thank you for all you have done for family historians with French roots. You have achieved something amazing with the Geneanet site and are justifiably proud of how it has grown into a major resource. I wish you all the best for the future. (rosie411)
4/12/23
You, your partner and staff have created a wonderful website for genealogy research. Best wishes for this exciting new project.
4/12/23
Thank you for your work and best of lucks in this new project
4/12/23
Thank you for your many years of dedication & service to all of us who share an interest in genealogy. Wishing you all the best & even more success with your new Foundation. You are truly an inspiration!
4/12/23
Thank you for your efforts in the development of Geneanet Jacques. Your group has helped bring me from the discovery that I have a French Canadian heritage to begining to know of my French family.
4/12/23
Thank you for all the help finding our families over the years!
4/12/23
I am extremely grateful for geneanet and the important role it plays helping to connect people across the world with their ancestors and roots. Merci Beaucoup! Thank you for your work. Best wishes Jacques.
4/12/23
Thank you for your site. Because of this I have been able to connect with so many distant relatives through their family trees. You’ve done a terrific job. You’ll never know how many people you’ve helped.
4/12/23
I thank you for your work in developing this site. Geneanet helped me break through brick walls on my French and Belgian lines. I had been working on those lines since the late 1960’s. With your website I was able to break through a couple of years ago.
4/12/23
Thank you and all the best in the future
I greatly appreciate the information I have received in finding my family history on this site.
4/12/23
I wanted to express my gratitude for your all the help and support that you probate us. Your support means the world to me! Thank You.
4/12/23
Very best wishes for all your future success, and many thanks for the wonderful community you co-founded!
4/12/23
I found geneanet a few months ago, I hope it continues to be free based, I have joined a few others and after I was there , got all my information in ; they started to charge :( all my work and then , the organization started charging for the work I did. Same as ancestry dot com , they want me to pay to share my work : family information shouldn’t come at a cost.
Thank you for this site. I love this one and family tree!
4/12/23
The affect that your service has given me personally is so much more than mere words can convey. At the age of 76 I did a DNA test with Ancestry as I had been adopted I had always thought as a baby but it turns out that I was just under 3 years of age and through your service I was able first to connect with my Half siblings and have met some of them but I have also been able to find my full brothers and some more half sisters. Now rising 78 I have a huge family of 14 and have traced my maternal line back ten generations. My deep thanks and I wish you well in your journey forward.
4/12/23
Many thanks for all you have done for millions of other people!
4/12/23
Geneanet is my reference and all the data I gather goes into my Geneanet cache. Thank you to all those team under your guidance
4/12/23
I thank you from all my family members for building and steering such a fantastic resource for loads and loads of people throughout the world that are either researching their family research or have found family members buy data matching online, this has been a game changer in the search for many of my missing links and brick walls, thank you so much, and good luck with the future..
David Craker (Australia)
4/12/23
Thanks for support as I found so many of my family members and history. Good luck with your new job!
4/12/23
Thank you for all you have achieved in the field of Genealogy. Good luck for the future.
4/12/23
Many thanks and all the very best! Cheers!
4/12/23
Thank you for your many years of service, and best wishes for your future endeavers.
4/12/23
On behalf of the WorldGenWeb Project, many thanks for your Geneanet work and good luck with your foundation for the study and development of biotherapies.
4/12/23
thankyou and all the best
4/12/23
Geneanet has been a very good resource for my genealogical research. Thank you for your service and best wishes for your future endeavors.
4/12/23
Good luck in your new venture.
Thank you
4/12/23
Thank you for all the information that has been provided. Best wishes to you in whatever your path leads you.
4/12/23
Many thanks Jacques for shaping Geneanet in the form as it has become now…Altough I dont use it not so often anymore, Geneanet is a great tool to dive into the past and find back your familiy roots .
I wish you good luck lots of success in future carreer and challenges.
4/12/23
Jacques, thank you for your dedication to the particular niche that Geneanet serves. It is the information I found only here that I have been able to find my Swiss and French ancestors. It was particularly difficult to find any information, from a Canadian perspective, for any French or Swiss records until Geneanet provided that opportunity. I am truly grateful. I wish you all the best on your next quest. ~Naomi~
4/12/23
Wishing you the best in your new adventures. Thank you for all you’ve done
4/12/23
Thank you Jacques, wishing you well in your next venture.
4/12/23
Best wishes for the future
4/12/23
Gracias, grazie, e’merci beaucoup Jacques. Buena suerte con su proyecto Fundacion por Bioterrapie.
4/12/23
Thank you for your service to the science of genealogy
4/12/23
Thank you for all the information you have provided to all of us who are seeking our ancestors. Good luck in your new adventure.
4/12/23
I’m so sorry to hear of your leaving. Thank you for all you and your team has done. Wish you all the best, Jacques, and Blessings to you and your family. Merci beaucoup ~Jeanne Marie Remillard Batty
4/12/23
Thank you for all your great work Jacques.
4/12/23
Thank you for your dedication with helping us find our roots
4/12/23
Your site contributed greatly to the research and documentation of my French ancestry. You have set the bar high with the way you have openly and informatively communicated to Geneanet subscribers. Thank you for your notable contribution in preserving and documenting history through genealogy. Best wishes to you and your new organization!
4/12/23
Thank you for making this site what it is today and best wishes for the future.
Liliane White
4/12/23
Thank you for helping so many of us to further our research. Good luck.
4/12/23
Thank you Jacques and good luck to you and Christophe.
4/12/23
Thanks for all you’ve done. Success breeds success, so keep charging ahead!
4/12/23
Dziękuję za wszystkie działania i rozwój Geneanetu przez tak długi czas. Życzę powodzenie w nowej dziedzinie. Wszystkiego dobrego.
4/12/23
Thank you for this site. I has helped me advance with my family roots. All the best for the next steps in you life.
4/12/23
Merci pour le bon travail que vous avez fait!
4/12/23
Félicitations et merci. Bonne chance.
4/12/23
Merci beaucoup
4/12/23
Avec mes meilleurs souvenirs depuis le Grand Duché de Luxembourg,
Merci pour tout et mes meilleurs voeux pour votre futur et le passé des membres de geneanet
J. Leyder
4/12/23
Merci. De par Geneanet j’ai pu retrouver mes racines et me reconnecter avec beaucoup de mes cousins et cousines.
Bonne chance Mr Le Marois…
4/12/23
Thank you! And good luck in your new project. I will take a look at it and see how you plan to prioritise the research.
4/12/23
Thank you for creating and leading this genealogical website, which is truly for its members, in a personal way.
4/12/23
Thank you very much, Mr. Le Marois for the creation and the success of Geneanet. This site allows millions of people to reconstruct their genealogy and find lost cousins. I have no doubt that your next project will enjoy the same success.
4/12/23
The site has assisted me a lot, especially the relationship reports have been very helpful
4/12/23
Good luck and thank you
4/12/23
Best of luck in your new endeavor.
4/12/23
Thank you for all you’ve done for so many of us!
4/12/23
Thank you your help on the French side of my tree
4/12/23
Mighty Fine sir a job well done indeed good luck with your nest project. Thank You
4/12/23
Thank you for forming this wonderful website, and wishing you the best of luck with your next endeavours.
4/12/23
Thanks for all you have done here, and all you will achieve in this new venture.
4/12/23
Many thanks for your foresight in founding such an amazing ideology. Good luck in your news venture.
4/12/23
Thank you, and good luck with your study and development of biotherapies!
4/12/23
Thank you for having led this organization, and best wishes for the next venture.
4/12/23
Thank you for your service with us! :)
4/12/23
Thank you Mr. Le Marois for all your help, and good luck in whatever you’ve decided to do! Merci!
4/12/23
I am sorry to see you leave, but thank you for starting Geneanet.
4/12/23
Thank you Sir for all you’ve done for the Web Site and all the best for your future Project
4/12/23
Thank you for co-founding Geneanet and good luck in your new endeavors!