I am taking the liberty of sending this info on Rootsweb to the list. Hopefully every subscriber will see where they can send at least a $12 check as a supporter. If you can afford to send more, please do.I feel that Rootsweb supplies us with a tremendous amount of genealogical information, and we can research the web at our pace and within a timeframe that we individually have. I can't visit my public library or the Family History Center in my town after I get through with a day at work because they are closed. Please consider helping. WHY DOES ROOTSWEB NEED YOUR SUPPORT? by Dr. Brian Leverich <leverich@rootsweb.com> Sometimes it is difficult for users to understand the costs involved in operating RootsWeb and why it is worth genealogists' time and money to support RootsWeb. For example, take the United States census. RootsWeb is currently providing server support to the USGenWeb Archives and Census Projects as they bring the U.S. census online. Our goal is to have both a searchable index to the census *AND* images of all the pages available on an open basis for all Internet genealogists. Our best estimate is that bringing the census online will require about 3.6 terabytes of data storage. That means we will need about 200 18 GB hard disks, and each of those disks costs about $1,000. That means the data storage alone is going to cost $200,000, and that doesn't include the servers and the bandwidth to make that storage accessible over the Web. Is $200,000 a lot of money? Well, sort of. Regardless of how much they want to help, Karen and Brian couldn't pay for that even if they mortgaged their house and cashed in their pension savings. On the other hand, $200,000 is only about 67 cents per user at RootsWeb. That is about 1/100 of what some commercial firms are charging for data they have locked up in members-only areas. Bringing the U.S. census online is not the only project RootsWeb supports. We are hosting literally hundreds of other data projects, some American and many for other countries (like the British FreeBMD Project). If all (or even if most) of our users were contributors, there is a lot RootsWeb could be doing to accelerate the rate at which public records are brought online and opened to the public. You can help us bring those records online. For details about support levels/benefits and payment options, visit <http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html> or send e-mail to <RW-info@rootsweb.com>. The regular mail address is: RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative, P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798. (Please include your e-mail address on all correspondence and checks sent to RootsWeb.) Thanks for your time. I am a proud ROOTSWEB sponsor. Doris Lindblad