RootsWeb Announcement
March 13th, 2008 by TimAs you know, The Generations Network has hosted and funded the RootsWeb online community since June 2000, thereby maintaining RootsWeb as the world’s oldest and largest free genealogy website. TGN remains committed to this mission and believes that RootsWeb is an absolutely invaluable and complementary resource to Ancestry.com, our flagship commercial family history site. We believe in both services and want to see both communities prosper and grow.
As part of this goal, we have decided to “transplant” RootsWeb onto the Ancestry.com domain beginning next week. This move will not change the RootsWeb experience or alter the ease of navigation to or within RootsWeb. RootsWeb will remain a free online experience. What will be different is that the Web address for all RootsWeb pages will change from www.rootsweb.com to www.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Again, the RootsWeb experience is not changing.
The decision to host RootsWeb on Ancestry.com is being made for one primary reason: we believe that the users of each of our two main websites can be better served if they have access to the best services available on both. Simply stated, we want to introduce more Ancestry.com users to RootsWeb and vice versa.
Today, despite the fact that Ancestry.com and RootsWeb.com are the two most frequently visited family history sites on the Web, only 25 percent of visitors to Ancestry.com visited RootsWeb in January 2008, while only 20 percent of visitors to RootsWeb visited Ancestry.com (according to Comscore Media Metrix). We think we will serve our users best by doing a better job of letting them know what is available on both Ancestry.com and RootsWeb. Hosting RootsWeb on Ancestry.com is the first step towards making this happen, but we will absolutely look for more and better ways down the road to advance this goal.
Hosting RootsWeb on Ancestry.com will also make it easier for us to make changes and improvements to the RootsWeb experience in the future.
All old RootsWeb URLs will continue to work, whether they are bookmarks or favorites, links to or from a hosted page or URLs manually typed in your Internet browser. We will have a redirect in place so that all old URLs will automatically end up on the appropriate new RootsWeb URL. You will never need to update your old favorites or links unless you want to. We have worked to make the transition as seamless as possible for our users, and this change should have a minimal impact on your experience with the site.
RootsWeb will remain a free online experience dedicated to providing you with a place where our community can find their roots together. If you have questions regarding this change please email them to feedback@rootsweb.com.
Thanks,
Tim Sullivan
CEO
The Generations Network, Inc.
March 13th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
[...] The following message was posted to the RootsWeb News Room today: As you know, The Generations Network has hosted and funded the RootsWeb online community since June 2000, thereby maintaining RootsWeb as the world’s oldest and largest free genealogy website. TGN remains committed to this mission and believes that RootsWeb is an absolutely invaluable and complementary resource to Ancestry.com, our flagship commercial family history site. We believe in both services and want to see both communities prosper and grow. [...]
March 13th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Will Ancestry.com be putting banners on all their pages pointing to RootsWeb to increase traffic in that direction just as you are planning to add banners to the top of RootsWeb pages? Seems only fair if you are truly concerned about the cross traffic.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Tim Sullivan, CEO said, “only 20 percent of visitors to RootsWeb visited Ancestry.com (according to Comscore Media Metrix). We think we will serve our users best by doing a better job of letting them know what is available on both Ancestry.com and RootsWeb. Hosting RootsWeb on Ancestry.com is the first step towards making this happen, but we will absolutely look for more and better ways down the road to advance this goal.”
No, the first step was buying Rootsweb. The second was to put all the Ancestry ads on Rootsweb pages, incuding Mailing List Archive pages that only exist on Rootsweb. The third was to deconstruct the Message Boards to fit Ancestry’s advertising program on the pages (after which ancestry and rootsweb hits dropped by about 40%). The fourth was the disruptive word-tag popups in the message boards, pointing to completely unrelatedly illogical links (non-surname words used in Message Boards; same-name Counties in other states) and useless Ancestry products. *Not* pointing to USGenweb pages for States and Counties, for instance, and *not* pointing to Rootsweb mailing lists.
All this jiggering around, at the direction of managers who do not understand how folks constructively use these sites, has only convinced more people that customer satisfaction is not driving what is being done, and is not even a factor.
If Ancestry is jealous of how well Rootsweb works, why not emphasize usefulness for research as the most important goal?
Are product excellence and customer satisfaction on the mission statement at all?
March 13th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
It could be worse….
Just imagine Microsoft buying TNG as a way to compete with Google {SHUDDER}!
March 13th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
my post failed to appear
“what Tim Sullivan does not say that it is us, the TGN subscribers, who have happily paid for Rootsweb since June 2000″
possibly because I put an URL to the dnkcen site – danish census help pages – which I adminater.
I hope the new system will get rid of the archaic tilde and go over to user created subdomains like blogspot for user created web pages
Negative mutterings are heard over at US GeneWeb too becaue the content was created by volunteers some of it may well get deleted.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Of course Rootsweb users don’t go to Ancestry; you have to have a subscription! duh.
Most Ancestry users have never heard of Rootsweb and have no idea anything can be free. That’s the last thing Ancestry wants them to find out.
March 13th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
just playing with the new URL
it is an apache server running on Red Hat Linux
“If you are the administrator of this website:
You may now add content to this directory, and replace this page. Note that until you do so, people visiting your website will see this page, and not your content. ”
oh dear
March 13th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
you try
http://bigfile.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
March 13th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
and http://www.rootsweb.com/~dnkcen/index.html
becomes http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dnkcen/index.html
March 13th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
DUH indeed lakebay4me
“Of course Rootsweb users don’t go to Ancestry; you have to have a subscription! duh.
Most Ancestry users have never heard of Rootsweb and have no idea anything can be free. That’s the last thing Ancestry wants them to find out. ”
Why don’t you know that there are lost of freebies on ancestry
1880 and 1881 census index (pay for images)
England and Wales Freebmd
much of the learning center
eg
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
introduction offers of new databases (be quick)
OK many end up on “Landings”
at which point shoe string genealogists contact the nearesst SKS or go to a local library and use
ancestrylibrary edition
March 14th, 2008 at 4:49 am
I am very disappointed – I have contributed my information to rootsweb for years and was told it would always be free. I have also found it on Ancestry.com where people would have to pay to get the information – not directing them to rootsweb.com. I have complained about this to no avail. I used to also have a yearly subscription to ancestry. Then it got too expensive. Now I only go on once a year for a month. Originally when you contributed to ancestry you got some free time – will I be getting free time? I doubt it very much.
Virginia
March 14th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Let’s be honest, Mr Sullivan. Moving RootsWeb to the Ancestry domain, redirecting existing URLs and not changing any of the services won’t serve anyone but you better and doesn’t make it any easier to make changes to RootsWeb.
You don’t care at all about RootsWeb, you just want to get more page views on the Ancestry domain so that you can charge more for advertising. RootsWeb’s free services and helpful community have been a thorn in your side since you took over at Ancestry.
The least you can do it be honest as you rape RootsWeb.
March 14th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
For one, I’m looking forward to the transplantation of RootsWeb to the Ancestry domain. I’ve rarely used RootsWeb, not because I don’t know it’s there, but because I seldom find anything of value to my personal research on RootsWeb. I do, however, find a great deal of value on Ancestry.
I hope that after TGN transplants RootsWeb to the Ancestry domain, I will be able to conduct a single search and find hits in both RootsWeb and Ancestry.
I realize that not everyone can afford a subscription to Ancestry.com. I’m glad that, through my paid subscription to Ancestry.com, I am helping to subsidize RootsWeb and keep it free for the entire community.
Steve Danko
http://www.stephendanko.com
stephen@stephendanko.com
March 14th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Steve – Great idea about the single search!
I agree, there is nothing but value to be had from an Anestry subscription. I would never have the information I have to this point if it weren’t for my Ancestry subscription.
It’s a pity that there still seem to be so many misinformed people out there. Not only do I know about RootsWeb, I have a FreePages website there and I am grateful everyday that I have the website to share all of the infromation I have collected on my ancestors and to share other information related to the area my ancestors settled.
To the rest of you:
To say there is nothing free at Ancestry is WRONG! As someone kindly listed above, there are several databases which one can freely access.
And to those of you who think that Ancestry takes your gedcoms that you have uploaded to RootsWeb and charges to search them, you are WRONG!!!! I just signed off my account to prove my point. I was able to search Ancestry World Trees which are the RootsWeb trees and they are just as free on Ancestry as they are on RootsWeb.
Please check your facts! You check your facts when doing your genealogy, don’t you? You make sure that you have the correct information for each of your ancestors so why don’t you check your facts before saying things about Ancestry that just aren’t true?
Linda
March 14th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I have been a genealogist for over 40 years. You have usurped everything in genealogy, since your inception.
If I join your generations, You make me buy back my own genealogy, that I gave freely to others.
Ancestry is not know for being nice, only for making money.
I have been a member of NEHGS for a long time, and your offer to be a joint member with them is an insult.
From now on, I am not interested in supporting any of you.
You are thieves and charletans. The fact that most of you are Mormons, really makes me sick, as I happen to have been raised as one.
My father was a great friend of Thomas Monson. Wonder how he feels about your tactics.
Bonnie (Baker) Weber
March 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Goodbye, RootsWeb. You were a great place. We are saddened at your death.
March 15th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
I have never found anything of value on Ancestry that i couldn’t find in other websites. The only information on my family is what I’ve contributed to Rootsweb and then it was used by Ancestry – as though they did the research. Other than the census reports, Ancestry never makes a connection. They simply give you a name and then they don’t tell you who the parents are or the children. Most of the documentation is useless because you can’t prove anything. I fail to see why the Ancestry site takes so much money to run.
March 16th, 2008 at 1:57 am
Along the way the Rootsweb members who donated money every year to support Rootsweb have been forgotten. Rootsweb offerd free webspace free from banners and advertisements. Why isn’t TGN honoring those agreements? This was a offer posted on the Rootsweb site “donate” and we will give you ownership of your mail list. Donate and we will give you in return webspace.
The checks were cashed the money was accepted and now TGN is violating this agreement.
Rootsweb could not have existed without the volunteers donating the money and and their records for the project.
I am sick and tired of seeing how Rootsweb has given it’s members free space. I donated money for my sites and I spent my own money for gas, parking fees, copies, hotel rooms, air fare other expenses to add content to Rootsweb so it could be sold for millions of dollars.
What is Rootsweb without the content placed there by the volunteers and members of USGenWeb? What are the mail lists and message boards without the professional genealogists who man them free of charge?
NOTHING
March 16th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
There sure are a lot of misinformed people out there in research land. Some of you can’t or won’t take at face value what is told to you by Rootsweb or Ancestry. Those companies are not out to “get” you. Ancestry.com does not their data for free. It cost money to hire transcribers or to buy outright. Why should we expect to get it for free. If you cannot afford or do not want to pay for the various subscriptions then go to your local library. Everything available to them by Ancestry.com is FREE to library users. Quit complainng. Good researchers check all the data that is submitted to places such as world connect. I’ve found that people submit wrong information on their trees because they assume it is correct when they take from someone elses tree and never intended to find a correct source. A good genealogist will use any available source to locate what they need but they also will record the source so that when it circulated it is correct. I get so tired of people complaining. I try to ignore misinformed angry people. I also have nothing but praise to those who do genealogy research the correct way.
March 17th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
DonnaKentch524 Says:
Wait until you find records you transcribed on Ancestry word for word.
Then you can tell somebody to quit complaining.
Until then I would rather hear a thank you to the thousands of USGENWEB volunteers who spent their own time and money, tromped throught cemeteries and spent thousands of hours in dusty court houses to transcribe records to help researchers all at no cost to them.
Since you hail the money they spend paying transcribers where is the payment to the members of the USGENWEB for their records we are now finding on Ancestry.
Don’t you feel like a idiot for paying for a subscription for records that are online for free. If you don’t you should.
March 17th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Correction to last post.
DonnaKentch524 Says:
March 16th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
There sure are a lot of misinformed people out there in research land. Some of you can’t or won’t take at face value what is told to you by Rootsweb or Ancestry
MargieDaniels2184 Says:
March 17th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
DonnaKentch524 Says:
Wait until you find records you transcribed on Ancestry word for word.
Then you can tell somebody to quit complaining.
Until then I would rather hear a thank you to the thousands of USGENWEB volunteers who spent their own time and money, tromped throught cemeteries and spent thousands of hours in dusty court houses to transcribe records to help researchers all at no cost to them.
Since you hail the money they spend paying transcribers where is the payment to the members of the USGENWEB for their records we are now finding on Ancestry.
Don’t you feel like a idiot for paying for a subscription for records that are online for free. If you don’t you should.
March 18th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Maggie. No I don’t feel stupid for what I said. Not all records found on Ancestry can be found free somewhere els. I have helped get information to USGENWEB. I to have have some of my information copied and it has appeared elseware.
USGENWEB is free, and the volunteers donated their time for free. Keep in mind all the info put on the various counties on USGENWEB is free for anyone to copy and use as they see fit.
I’ve had my information copied from a tree and used elseware by someone else or have it changed and credit for it given to another person.
I’m just saying that before we all go belistic we need to find the sources of who is telling us what is happening or in your case find out who took it and why. Maybe it was donated word for word to ancestry by someone who copied it word for word from USGENWEB.
I’ve been doing genealogy for a long time and still feel the best way is to be sure of your sources before you say its final.
March 18th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
“Wait until you find records you transcribed on Ancestry word for word.”
Rootsweb Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) gives them the right to use any user-submitted content in any way they please:
“By submitting Submitted Content to RootsWeb.com, you grant MyFamily.com, Inc., the corporate host of the Service, a limited license to the Submitted Content to use, host, and distribute that Submitted Content and allow hosting and distribution on co-branded Services of that Submitted Content.”
See Rootsweb Acceptable Use Policy (”AUP”) at
http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/aup.html
March 19th, 2008 at 8:47 am
We could all post many replys to what management says and no ones opinion would change. It’ s unfortunate. Rootsweb, Ancestry and the other sites will continue. They will never please eveyone. Use them or not. Always read the fine print.
My last thoughts on this discussion is also taken from the acceptable use policy and it is:
“If you don’t agree with any of these terms and conditions, don’t use the Service. We may alter this agreement at our discretion and your continued use after any change indicates your acceptance of that change. If you don’t want to be bound by a change, discontinue use of the Service. ”
“IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH ANY PORTION OF THIS WEB SERVICE, OR WITH ANY OF THESE TERMS OF USE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THIS WEB SERVICE.”
March 25th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Great, just great Ancestry.
I administer a county website hosted by Rootsweb and on a number of pages I use Google Map mashups so the viewer can see the location of cemeteries, historical communities, schools, etc. To use Google Maps on one’s own site, you need a Google API key. That key is embedded in a script in each page. It is specific for the URL for which you applied.
Now that you guys have seen fit to add your name to the rootsweb domain name, my API keys don’t work any more. And a redirect doesn’t cut it, because to Google it is a different URL which means I have to have a new API key. Nice going guys. I’d like to point out a few other issues that you jerks have created, but I have to spend time to edit my entire website. Thanks a bunch!
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I don’t know if users are aware of this, but we are getting quite a few puzzled enquiries on various Scottish discussion groups, mainly census information which the poster found on Ancestry. They all seem to be quite simply bad transcriptions. Ancestry seem to have had a very poor quality control of their census transcription. I hope they intend to improve on that.
Meantime, the FREECEN service provides a more accurate rendering of the U.K. census data.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I want to leave a comment.
I am very disappointed that when I place my url in the search box I have to go through ancestry.com to get to my site.
I am also at this time going to mention that many people place hours of researching court houses, etc to place on their independant sites. Now that ancestry is taking it over does that mean that they will be taking the information that is placed on free sites [rootsweb.com] will also be burned into CD’s and sold?
I placed years ago my line that had many mistakes and low and behold I was later contacted by people telling me they found me on the CD. I never gave it to be placed on a CD and sold.
I wonder if the bottom line is the dollar as is much in life now.
November 9th, 2010 at 4:27 am
Nicely .
October 27th, 2011 at 7:33 am
Good write-up, I am normal visitor of one’s website, maintain up the nice operate, and It is going to be a regular visitor for a long time. “Time has a wonderful way of weeding out the trivial.” by Howard Aiken.