Hi, This site http://www.msnbc.com/news/246411.asp#BODY required me to download plugins to view the material (which I did) but for those of you who don't wish to download the plugin, this is the information on the page: This is what it said: THE NEW WEB SITE (www.familysearch.org) won’t officially launch until mid-April, but it is expected to “go live” for testing any day now. Church officials originally planned to leave the site open to all during the test period. But for fear of being swamped, they now may limit access to official testers with assigned passwords. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints collects genealogical records of all kinds because the Mormons believe it is important to perform religious rites on behalf of dead ancestors. It has the world’s largest collection of such data. Genealogy is one of the most popular subjects on the Internet. As more information goes online, it seems to create more genealogists. About 100 million Americans have at least dabbled in it, and 19 million actively research their family history, according to a 1995 Maritz Marketing Research study for American Demographics magazine. Rootsweb (www.rootsweb.org) has more than 200,000 subscribers to 3,000 e-mail lists about genealogy. The number of subscribers is growing rapidly, according to John V. Wylie, a professional genealogist from Grand Prairie, Texas. Wylie is a co-founder of GENTECH (www.gentech.org), a non-profit society to help genealogists use technology. Mormon Church officials are vague about what Web surfers can expect to find on their new site, but that hasn’t dampened genealogists’ enthusiasm. “I think the reaction is probably going to be unanimously, ‘Wow! It’s about time!”’ said Marthe Arends, editor of the newsletter Pioneers Online (www.eskimo.com/~mnarends), based in Bellevue, Wash. The newsletter helps genealogists use the Internet. With 2.1 million rolls of microfilm, 700,000 microfiches and 280,000 books, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (www.lds.org) is the ultimate source for many genealogists. The master collection, which includes the birth, death and marriage records of an estimated 6 billion people, is kept in a vault carved 900 feet into the side of Granite Mountain. Completed in 1964, the vault is a testament to the importance the Church places on tracing one’s ancestors and performing for them vicarious ordinances of baptism and marriage so that those who lived and died before Joseph Smith founded the church in 1830 can enjoy the benefits of God’s grace. The vault contains six separate chambers, each 200 feet long, 30 feet wide and 15 feet tall. The entire vault, dug into the side of the canyon, lies 800 to 900 feet under the mountaintop. The microfilm records are maintained at a temperature below 70 degrees Fahrenheit and at a humidity below 35 percent. Due to the need for a controlled environment, visitors are not permitted, but MSNBC’s 360-degree surround video gives you a sense of what one sees at the mouth of the vault. -- Sherry in Georgia osburn@bellsouth.net sherryosburn@hotmail.com ICQ# 199338591 Sherry's Genealogy Home Page - Our Georgia Families http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6370/index.html Visit my GAGenWeb/USGenWeb County pages: Gilmer County http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6370/gilmer.html Seminole County http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6370/seminole.html Walker County http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6370/walker.html Webster County http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6370/webster.html