If you happen to live in the area or are coming in for the FGS conference make sure to stop by the Ancestry booth and say hi. Saturday we are hosting a free day if classes, http://ancestrydaylittlerock.eventbrite.com/, including Tapping into the Ancestry.com and RootsWeb Community, so it may be worth a short drive to come in for the day. (Of course I think it’s worth it! But I am also flying for 6 hours today. 
Today, amongst others, I find myself reflecting on my ancestors and what they accomplished that allows me to be where I am today. I am a Canadian citizen, and grew up in Canada, although I was born in the U.S., so I have the unique opportunity to call both countries “home.”
Both of my maternal great grandmothers came to Canada, one from the U.S. and one from the UK, in the early 1900’s and both eventually settled in Western Canada. My grandmother’s mother is my namesake, Annie Louisa Smith, so I am especially fond of this side of my family. My grandfather and his father both served in the Canadian military; I can still picture my grandfather proud in his uniform at my grandparents 50th Anniversary. They gladly served their country and fought for our freedom. So how did I end up being born in the U.S.? My mother attended college in the U.S., married an American and after many years in the U.S. had a desire to return home to Canada. What a wonderful impact this decision had on my life as I grew up and eventually followed in her footsteps. (I haven’t yet convinced my husband to move to Canada though…)
As I reflect upon my heritage I am reminded that I need to sit down and write more of my history, the stories behind the records. I want to pass along the gratitude and love I have for my ancestors so their lives can be brought to life for future generations.
Although my families Canadian roots aren’t deep we are very proud of our Canadian heritage and so today I bid you all a Happy Canada Day!
We wanted to let you know we have heard your concerns about the Ancestry.com Internet Biographical Collection and wanted to make sure everyone knew Ancestry has removed this collection. You may be interested in a recent post regarding this collection from an Ancestry product manager here.
RootsWeb survives because of the contributions of time, information, and a love for genealogy that is shared by our members and thousands of volunteers. RootsWeb continues to be dedicated to supporting the genealogy community as a free resource to research and share your family history. We appreciate you and your desire to work toward growing our community and bettering the site.
RootsWeb Staff
In keeping you updated with our progress of branding changes on RootsWeb we wanted to let you know that we will be updating websites that are currently hosted by RootsWeb with our new logo(e.g., HomePages, FreePages, etc.). We want to reiterate that these changes in appearance do not change anything about the identity or mission of RootsWeb; we are still the oldest and largest free genealogy site. In addition to the new branding we are also working on other initiatives to improve the RootsWeb experience, including adding new servers to make sure the site performs better for everyone on RootsWeb. We appreciate your patience with these minor updates, and want to thank you for being part of our RootsWeb community!