fyi only, no comments please. Deborah Byrd ----- Original Message ----- From: <RootsWeb-Announce@rootsweb.com> To: <RootsWeb-Announce@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 5:59 AM Subject: Good News, Bad News, Good News: The Merger of RootsWeb and MyFamily.com > Good News, Bad News, Good News: RootsWeb and MyFamily.com Merger > > Good news: You, our Donor and Donor Plus contributors, have played a > special role in creating RootsWeb, one of the largest and most popular > sites on the Internet. In May, we had over 149 million page views > (according to Nielsen NetRatings combined home and work statistics), > sent over 155 million e-mails, and handled over two million downloads > of files from the various archives hosted at RootsWeb. Everyone, take > a bow! This is an incredible community of genealogists, and the > advances we're all making in our research due to the sharing that > occurs here is unprecedented. > > Bad news: The more popular RootsWeb becomes, the more costly it is to > simply stay alive and online. Even with your very generous support, > expenses continue to exceed revenue. We ran up a truly scary loss > last year. Without outside help, it's not clear how long we'd be able > to go on like this. > > Good news: MyFamily.com (you may know them better as Ancestry.com) > recognizes the importance of the genealogical community that has grown > here at RootsWeb, and wants that community to continue to thrive. > They're excited to provide the financial stability we need to ensure > RootsWeb will be around for years to come. > > Brian and I are pleased by Ancestry.com's coming involvement with > RootsWeb. Now we can all focus on helping each other on the mailing > lists and message boards, uploading our GEDCOMs, and building Web > pages to share our research. > > Better news: As a special thank you to those of you at the Donor > and Donor Plus level, Ancestry.com is making the following offer: > > As a RootsWeb contributor, you are invited to visit Ancestry.com today > and sign up for a FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION with no obligation. You'll > gain full access to all 600 million names in more than 2,500 databases. > Go to the following address to begin your free subscription now: > > http://ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrialx.asp?sourcecode=G11BD > <http://ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrialx.asp?sourcecode=G11BD> > > If you are already an Ancestry.com subscriber please call 1-800-595-1211 > to extend your current subscription. Select option #2 - Order Service. > > You must activate your FREE subscription by July 5, 2000. > > More good news: No one is going to charge you to use RootsWeb. You'll > still find RootsWeb at www.RootsWeb.com. Everything you're used to > using will still be here: the 19,000 mailing lists, the hundreds > of millions of names in free genealogy databases, the interactive > learning guides, the weekly RootsWeb Review and Missing Links, > the numerous tools for tracing your family history, the tens of thousands > of message boards, the thousands of independently authored web sites. > RootsWeb will still support worthy genealogy projects and societies, > such as the USGenWeb Project (www.USGenWeb.org), the Immigrant Ships > Transcribers Guild (ISTG.rootsweb.com) and the FreeBMD Project > (FreeBMD.rootsweb.com), and other groups that provide free > genealogical resources. > > You will of course still get all of services and benefits we promised > you, such as mailing lists, banner-free home pages, and access to PML, > the feature that scans all our mailing lists and message boards for > the surnames you specify. > > And don't worry, you won't be charged to access RootsWeb. No one > will put your data on CD without your permission. Our Privacy Policy > (http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/pledge.html) and our Acceptable User > Policy (http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/aup.html) are unchanged. > Other promises made over the years will continue to be honored. You'll > still deal with the same RootsWeb volunteers and employees. In > fact, most users won't notice any changes, except exciting new tools, > more content, and better genealogical resources. > > If you would like more information, please check out our > official press release at > > http://www.ancestry.com/home/celebrate/rootsrelease.htm > > Again, thank you for you loyal support. We hope you enjoy your free > Ancestry.com subscription, and we look forward to your continued > patronage. Now, let's go figure out where great-great-grandma really > came from, before that UFO deposited her in rural Kentucky in 1835... > > Karen >