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| rootsweb.com |
RootsWeb is a free genealogy community that uses online forums, mailing lists, and other resources to help people research their family history. Founded in 1993 by Brian Leverich and Karen Isaacson as the Roots Surname List, it is the oldest free online community genealogy research website.
Users can upload GEDCOM files of their information for others to search at the WorldConnect portion of the site. Trees uploaded to WorldConnect are searchable at both the RootsWeb and Ancestry websites. RootsWeb was acquired by Ancestry.com in June 2000.The value of Rootsweb is the huge accumulation of information about families and the large number of source citations. It has always been a go-to place for specialized and very complete research information. I am concerned that Ancestry.com, it current owner is going to eviscerate the program just as Ancestry has done with several other valuable genealogical resources in the past.
Rootsweb is one of the few legacy websites we still have from the days of the old online forums and bulletin board program from the very early days of the internet. Ancestry's concerns in part have to be based on the fact that Rootsweb is a free program and they are in the business of making money. I may be reading it wrong but Ancestry has passed through some changes in ownership and those entities who own the company are not genealogists. Interestingly, Ancestry has made no press releases as yet in 2018. Here is a quote from the corporate website showing who is running Ancestry.com now.
The company’s management team, led by CEO Tim Sullivan, is comprised of seasoned executives with prior experience at companies like Match.com, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, eBay, Novell, Zynga, Dropbox, Intuit and Stub Hub.I am not denigrating the value of Ancestry.com, but I am worried about the future.
I think Ancestry is using the volunteers at Rootsweb and Familysearch to update it's database. I do not think they do any of the work they just sell the work others have done.
ReplyDeleteAgree
DeleteAncestry wants the information volunteers and others upload they sell what is uploaded to rootsweb on ancestry. I don't think Ancestry actually inputs any information on obituaries, Birth & Death Records.... They get others to volunteer their time. I do not know what there revenue is now in 2017 it was a billion dollars!
ReplyDeleteIt is now 24 Jun 2020 and Rootsweb is now less useful. Formerly at least 8 ancestral generations could be printed out in a very nice single line format. Also gone are the listing of contributors. After a time one would soon find out who the reliable contributors were. Gone are the useful histories.
ReplyDeleteAncestry has managed to really deplete the usefulness of the former Rootsweb format. Two thumbs down rating for the current Rootsweb format.
Thanks for the update.
DeleteI am most concerned that Ancestry is making money off my hard earned research. My freepage is back up, but I am unable to add or make changes to it. I should have known better, but I was happy to share.
ReplyDeleteDo you all realize that it is down again? Freepages is no longer in existence. None of the Rootsweb hosted sites are in existence.
ReplyDeleteI think that when the last company bought out Ancestry, they decided this was an extra expense.
When ancestry got ahold of roots web its usefulness ended. I find it almost impossible to look someone up without having to search a thousand names, which have nothing to do with what my search was. They are deliberately ruining the free site in order to sell their subscriptions, and deserve a place in hell for it.
ReplyDeleteI noticed also that a lot of other sites - historical societies, family organizations, etc. are no longer accessible - especially those who added a large amount of information - I suspect Ancestry took them over as well. And their price just keeps going up.
ReplyDelete