RootsWeb Newsroom


Archive for August, 2007

A quick note…

Friday, August 31st, 2007

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

How To Get Your User Name Or Password From My Account

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

If you have forgotten your user name or password for My Account, please use the “Forgot your user name or password?” link on the My Account login page. Enter your email address and click on “Send Email.” This will send you a link to a “change” page where whatever you enter as a password will become your new  password, for that specific account.  

Many people are surprised when they receive this email to find they have a long list of usernames. My Account uses Ancestry’s login system so any Ancestry or MyFamily login will work here too and hence are listed in that email. If you have multiple logins, you will need to do this for each one. Sorry, multiple logins can not be merged or deleted.

The change username or password page has two boxes–the top box is for changing your password. Your password must be between 5 and 32 characters long and only include numbers, letters, _ (underscore) and – (dash).   Enter your new password and then confirm it by entering it a second time. By clicking on “Update” you complete the process and your password is changed.

The lower box is for changing your username. Your current username will be listed here first followed by a field to enter your new username. Your new username should be between 5 and 50 characters long and can be any combination of letters or numbers but not symbols or spaces. *Remember this will be a public username that others will see.  To update your username you need to enter your new username and click “Update”.   If you accidentally enter the same username you are currently using you will get an error message that it is already in use, you will also get an error if you choose a new username that is already in use by another member.  You may need to select a few new usernames before finding one that is not already in use—one way to change it up is to add numbers on the end, for example “Jane246”.

If you think that a username is yours but is under a different email address or if you changed email addresses and need your username and/or password, contact the HelpDesk and be sure to give the username, if known, and both your old and new email addresses.
 

Addition of ‘How To’ Blog Posts

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

In another effort to better your experience at RootsWeb we will posting “how-to” articles occasionally to the Newsroom. We hope that these articles provide the information you need to better navigate and utilise our site. If you have suggestions for article topics please send them to anna@rootsweb.com.

Branding Update

Friday, August 10th, 2007

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!