Joan, Rootsweb free sites do encourage you to use the Ancestry.com / formerly Rootsweb trees. I AM referring to paying for web space. It isn't so expensive that it wouldn't be worth owning it rather than borrowing it from Rootsweb, which only exists because it has to per the agreement with Ancestry.com. Not all Rootsweb web pages are unlimited and free Clarification of [my] statement that Ancestry/RootsWeb encourages you to store your database at Ancestry -- what do you mean by that? I know of no such requirement or "encouragement." Rootsweb: "Also, please do not upload GEDCOM files to Freepages accounts. They should be uploaded to _WorldConnect_ (http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/) and then you can link to your files there." I don't want my gedcom at Ancestry.com. Can I put it somewhere else and link from my Rootsweb page? When I said this: "You would have less control with a Rootsweb free site because you wouldn't have to fly their banners and you wouldn't be encouraged to store your database, if you have one, at Ancestry.com where it would end up sold and mixed up with a bunch of poor research." And this: "Sold and mixed up with a bunch of poor research?" What exactly do you mean by that? Whatever you mean -- it doesn't happen. I meant this: I was referring to OneWorldTree. After spending several years undoing some old bad genealogy for a certain family and disproving most it, my tree would be hooked right back up to the same old trees with the wrong wife and kids. I don't want my work anywhere near this ... I don't want it packaged and sold this way, regardless of whether they link to the original trees. And, as I said earlier, Ancestry.com arbitrarily chooses the trees they think match. It's a bad idea and it serves only the purpose of making money from the submitters and their work. I don't plan to run 30,000 genealogy mailing lists. I would only need a few, which can be done. Free lists are also available at usenet and other places. I don't believe I was complaining about mailing lists, though, was I? I was complaining about Ancestry.com cluttering itself with and selling information which is actually free and which it does not require a brain surgeon to search the Internet and find. Its much better to search fewer files that actually aren't available elsewhere. Maybe they could spend some time fixing some of their church records and ship lists which come out as a big mess instead of indexing records that people can find on their own for free. Also, I believe when Ancestry.com took over Rootsweb the mailing lists were a part of the deal. They didn't keep them out of the kindness of their hearts. I haven't thought out any of this carelessly, and I did not state them carelessly. I expressed them with thoughtfulness, but a bitter taste for the moneymaking machine that doesn't consider their subscribers even to the point of trying to grab your money from you early "in case they have to raise their rates for all the new additions." (their words, not mine). Ancestry.com certainly is not the hand that feeds me. I got along for years without it. It's handy at times, especially for census records, but it wouldn't kill me to go back to the library for that. Debbie ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour