FYI >Good News, Bad News, Good News: The Merger of RootsWeb and MyFamily.com > >Good news: You, our list and board administrators, have played a very >special role in making 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. Without you, it couldn't have happened. > >Bad news: The more popular RootsWeb becomes, the more costly it is to >simply stay alive and online. 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 for the hard work you do, >Ancestry.com is making the following offer: > > As a RootsWeb mailing list or board adminstrator, you are invited to > visit Ancestry.com today and sign up for a FREE THREE MONTH 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=G11BB > <http://ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrialx.asp?sourcecode=G11BB> > > 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: Nothing will change for you, 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. > >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 > >Thanks again for your support! Now, let's go figure out where >great-great-grandpa really came from, before that UFO deposited him in >rural Indiana in 1848... > >Karen -- List moderator , Stephenson Co., IL mailto:ILSTEPHE-L@rootsweb.com Stephenson Co. ILGenWeb Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilstephe