The Mathematics Genealogy Project is a web-based database for the academic genealogy of mathematicians. By 24 April 2017, it contained information on 211,735 mathematical scientists who contributed to research-level mathematics. For a typical mathematician, the project entry includes graduation year, thesis title, "alma mater", doctoral advisor, and doctoral students. 

The project grew out of founder Harry Coonce's desire to know the name of his advisor's advisor. Coonce was Professor of Mathematics at Minnesota State University, Mankato, at the time of the project's founding, and the project went online there in fall 1997. Coonce retired from Mankato in 1999, and in fall 2002 the university decided that it would no longer support the project. The project relocated at that time to North Dakota State University. Since 2003, the project has also operated under the auspices of the American Mathematical Society and in 2005 it received a grant from the Clay Mathematics Institute. Harry Coonce has been assisted by Mitchel T. Keller, Assistant Professor at Washington and Lee University. Dr Keller is currently the Managing Director of the project. 

The Mathematics Genealogy Mission statement states, "Throughout this project when we use the word "mathematics" or "mathematician" we mean that word in a very inclusive sense. Thus, all relevant data from statistics, computer science, philosophy or operations research is welcome."
when did he retire?
 Coonce retired from Mankato in 1999