Yes, My Family and Ancestry are both owned by the same company that owns RootsWeb. I personally am thankful that they are because they are determined to be profitable in order to make RootsWeb free. RootsWeb is kept free partly by the advertisements that are on the web pages and the pop ups that they have. Thank goodness that they have been able to find some way to be able to keep our lists free and the rest of the genealogy web pages free also. One other thing. If you are worried about losing ownership of your material that you have posted on My Family.com, RootsWeb.com or Ancestry.com, you can forget the worry. It is fully protected by the United States Intellectual Property Laws. There is no way a large conglomerate company would run the risk of the law suits that would ensue if it started stealing Intellectual Property under the guise of allowing you free web space. So rest easy. It won't happen. If you still feel uneasy about it. Just erase it and go on. I imagine that the company found that My Family.com was not reaching the numbers of people they wanted to reach and has become very expensive for the rest of the companies to carry financially - without payback. Maybe they just want to change the format or something of that sort. I have no idea, but I do know that it belongs to them, and they can do with it as they please - within the legal system. We all (that have sites, or are members of sites there) have to admit that the membership is very limited and private. That was the original idea. However, my take on the whole matter is to not bite the hand that feeds me. The other companies support RootsWeb! It keeps it free! Why would I listen to some malcontent from a non-RootsWeb list - or even from a RootsWeb lister; unless it was someone in management that could give me the straight skinny on the matter. Personally, I am thankful that RootsWeb allows me to be a member of a list like this and many others without restrictions and further, it allows me free access to so much free information on its web pages that others have graciously posted there to share with others. How many on this list have been helped by someone on one of these lists? How many have torn down brick walls that had been standing for years? Just last month I found someone that answered a question that I had been trying to answer more than ten years. Okay, I rest my case. Get back to genealogy and don't gripe about something that hasn't happened, and we have been assured that it won't! So quit raising a ruckus and lets get back to genealogy - not rumours. Maryann

Good comments here. Thank you! Folks have been asking me questions about all this that I could not answer. I did, however, get the unique opportunity to meet the CEO of MyFamily last Friday nite. I'm putting my money on this company. If they continue as they are right now, they are going to produce great things. We users tend to be frustrated when we start fumbling in the mechanics of things.. we want results and we want them now... i think we all have much to be thankful for in cyber genealogy. i'm old enough to remember the days when we had to order (and wait for) films, etc. Much better tools out there today. Thanks again for your words. --Sheila Gibson in Utah Dixlan2@aol.com wrote:Yes, My Family and Ancestry are both owned by the same company that owns RootsWeb. I personally am thankful that they are because they are determined to be profitable in order to make RootsWeb free. RootsWeb is kept free partly by the advertisements that are on the web pages and the pop ups that they have. Thank goodness that they have been able to find some way to be able to keep our lists free and the rest of the genealogy web pages free also. One other thing. If you are worried about losing ownership of your material that you have posted on My Family.com, RootsWeb.com or Ancestry.com, you can forget the worry. It is fully protected by the United States Intellectual Property Laws. There is no way a large conglomerate company would run the risk of the law suits that would ensue if it started stealing Intellectual Property under the guise of allowing you free web space. So rest easy. It won't happen. If you still feel uneasy about it. Just erase it and go on. I imagine that the company found that My Family.com was not reaching the numbers of people they wanted to reach and has become very expensive for the rest of the companies to carry financially - without payback. Maybe they just want to change the format or something of that sort. I have no idea, but I do know that it belongs to them, and they can do with it as they please - within the legal system. We all (that have sites, or are members of sites there) have to admit that the membership is very limited and private. That was the original idea. However, my take on the whole matter is to not bite the hand that feeds me. The other companies support RootsWeb! It keeps it free! Why would I listen to some malcontent from a non-RootsWeb list - or even from a RootsWeb lister; unless it was someone in management that could give me the straight skinny on the matter. Personally, I am thankful that RootsWeb allows me to be a member of a list like this and many others without restrictions and further, it allows me free access to so much free information on its web pages that others have graciously posted there to share with others. How many on this list have been helped by someone on one of these lists? How many have torn down brick walls that had been standing for years? Just last month I found someone that answered a question that I had been trying to answer more than ten years. Okay, I rest my case. Get back to genealogy and don't gripe about something that hasn't happened, and we have been assured that it won't! So quit raising a ruckus and lets get back to genealogy - not rumours. Maryann ==== ARKANSAS Mailing List ==== We have archives!! http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 ~ Sheila Gibson ~ SpiritHawk ~

Thought some subscribers might like to read my copy of the following post. Source is noted as is the author. Fran powell@closecall.com __________________________________________________ MESSAGE FROM THE ROOTSWEB HOME OFFICE Rootsweb Review Vol. 4 #26 by Jake Gehring, Executive Producer, RootsWeb.com Wow, what a week it has been. The messages have really been flying. In an effort to improve communication from RootsWeb to you (and vice versa), I will be sending out a message every so often which addresses current issues on the RootsWeb site. The RootsWeb staff has received lots of questions since the merger of Ancestry.com and RootsWeb.com last summer, and I think there's a general need for our users to have regular information on RootsWeb's efforts to provide valuable services to the genealogical community. I also want to make a few comments about our new message boards system which was launched last week. We're grateful for the excellent feedback many of you have provided. The feedback has been generally positive when addressing the value of the combined datasets and the increased search functionality. However, I also recognize that any significant change requires some getting used to and may create some temporary inconvenience and frustration. I would like to address some of the concerns we've heard from you, the users. By popular request, we will shortly add the ability for users to filter by message category within a message board (for queries, obituaries, deeds, etc.). For the benefit of the message board administrators, we are extending the board re-adoption deadline from July 15 to July 23. There is some confusion about RootsWeb's position regarding the ownership of messages posted on the boards. Let me clarify by excerpting from the Acceptable Use Policy, which reads, "When you post messages to mailing lists, message boards, and other facilities at RootsWeb, those posts remain your property under copyright law." The same is true for those using the message boards at Ancestry.com. In short, if you posted it, you own it. As far as the message boards or any other RootsWeb features are concerned, if you're not happy, we're not happy. Please continue to give us your comments and concerns at http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/help.cgi or at [TWO-LINE URL] http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=RootsWeb-20- Topics-20-and-20-Localities.AdminCenter.suggestions In the meanwhile, experiment with the newly merged message boards. You might discover some previously buried information or make an invaluable connection that will enable you to leap over a proverbial genealogical brick wall problem that you had almost given up on solving. * * * * * ----- Original Message ----- From: <Dixlan2@aol.com> To: <ARKANSAS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2003 12:49 AM Subject: [ARKANSAS] My Family and Ancestry