That was a pretty humorous website Athol. I love stuff like that. Poor choice of Domain name though. You're on the board of UsGenNet you all should make one of those <g>. In the interest of fairness I will forward the two pieces of e-mail below. It states the facts about Rootsweb and the merger. This is all that needs to be said about this issue on this list. There are plenty of lists out there debating this issue back and forth and since we're a friendly list we won't take it up here. I think it would be in very bad taste for me to allow it since Rootsweb provides this list free of charge as well as webspace free of charge to most of the UsGenWeb Project. And besides that I tend to lean towards Rootsweb on this issue and I absolutely will not loose a single friend over this. I'll quit the whole business first. There are plenty of websites out there, but I've never had enough friends. And I hope I never do. But before any sort of Rootsweb vs. whoever debate springs up I will say up front, this isn't the list for it. I want us all to remain friends and have a place we can discuss old times and Tennessee without worries of political debate. Chip Brown Owner\Manager Tnchat-l@rootsweb.com <<begin Rootsweb press release>> You'll still find RootsWeb at http://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 http://www.usgenweb.org, the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild http://istg.rootsweb.com/ the FreeBMD Project http://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 Use 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. ================================================ My name is Charles Merrin, and I am currently the Vice President of Marketing for RootsWeb. After the merger, I will remain as the General Manager of RootsWeb. I just wanted to assure you that RootsWeb's commitment to the USGenWeb Project is as strong as ever. You can continue to count on free data and banner free pages for the USGenWeb pages, and the same top-quality genealogy resources at RootsWeb. Thank you for your open mind and your willingness to give us a try. I am confident you will be rewarded for your strategy. CSM Charles Merrin charles@rootsweb.com