The following was printed in this week's edition of RootsWeb Review. I've copied it to the Bibb list in case someone isn't a subscriber or isn't aware of the many resources found in RootsWeb. Caroline Horton, List Administrator NEWS. MyFamily.com, Inc. Changes Its Name. In 2000, MyFamily.com, Inc. acquired RootsWeb.com as one of its network of online sites. Through its support, RootsWeb has been able to remain the largest, completely free, genealogy site on the Web. In December of 2006, MyFamily.com, Inc. announced that it has changed its name to The Generations Network, Inc. "We felt now was a good time to establish a company identity expansive enough to encompass everything that we do, but also completely focused on the family ... across the generations," said Tim Sullivan, the company's President and CEO. The company will continue to serve families online through its portfolio of leading brands and websites. For more information on The Generations Network, visit ttp://www.thegenerationsnetwork.com. Using RootsWeb: Sharing Its Secrets Originally published in the RootsWeb Review 27 September 2000, Vol. 8, No. 28. Pssst! Wanna know a s-e-c-r-e-t? In researching our family history, what better secrets can we share than the hidden, or often overlooked, features at RootsWeb that assist us in the exploration of our roots? The common starting points in using RootsWeb's many resources are surname and locality mailing lists and message boards as well as searching WorldConnect family trees. But what additional tools that can be found beyond these resources? RootsWeb offers a wide variety of ethnic mailing lists and message boards, which can teach us about our heritage beyond the basics of names, dates, and places. Ethnic lists and boards enable us to discuss languages and dialects, common migration and immigration patterns of ancestors of a specific ethnic group as well as dialects, customs, culture, and even recipes, legends, and superstitions. Ethnic mailing lists can be found by starting here http://lists.rootsweb.com/ and scrolling down to the Other category. Click on the links to the various ethnic sub-categories. The ethnic message boards can be found here: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.ethnic Another well-hidden secret at RootsWeb is the fact that ethnic lists and boards, as well as other RootsWeb resources, are not all centered around European groups that immigrated to America. There are message boards and/or mailing lists for Maori, Ainu of Japan, Danube-Swabian German, as well as Cross-Race, Hispanic, Celtic, and Gypsy heritage. The scope is international and only limited by the bounds of your interests and imagination. If you want to brush up on your knowledge of wars and uprisings that influenced the lives of your ancestors, RootsWeb has an international array of military subject message boards: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.military Military board topics are as diverse as the Boer War, the Austro-Hungarian Military, and the Mexican Revolution. Military mailing lists of equally broad subject matter can be found here: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Military/ Military history we may have forgotten from school days comes alive when viewed within the context of our ancestors' lives and participation. What role did religion play in the lives of your ancestors? Perhaps religious persecution was a major force behind your ancestors' migration patterns. We can learn all about the role of religion by using the Religion and Religious message boards located here: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.religious Topics range from Quaker to Jewish, and Shaker to Shinto. And don't forget the wide selection of mailing lists on this topic: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Religion/ Perhaps your ancestors followed a specific occupation or trade -- or have some family members have been diagnosed with an inherited genetic disease so you would like to explore more about your family's genes and health concerns. See the RootsWeb's Topic message boards and look under the Other category of mailing lists for those of interest to you. Saving the best secret for last, once you have uploaded your family tree to WorldConnect: http://wc.rootsweb.com/ in addition to knowing that the results of your research can now be viewed and searched by others so that your cousins will be able to find you -- you can also rest assured that your complete, unaltered, family tree database will be available for you to download by using the original user code and password -- should you ever need to replace lost data on your own computers. And it happens every day -- computers crash, files become corrupted, and hurricanes, floods, and storms can strike anyone any time. These are but a few secrets to using RootsWeb -- use them to help you overcome your brickwalls. These features are often eclipsed by the more popular, widely touted, surname and locality lists and boards, but success in genealogy often requires exploring the roads less traveled. Side benefits, such as WorldConnect's archiving of your unedited genealogy file, often goes unnoticed and unappreciated -- until disaster strikes.