We've all benefited from the incredible mailing lists and surname lists by ROOTSWEB....I can't wait till they have the Census info online! I admit I used these rootsweb pages for probably 8 months before I ever sent something to help! They are free, but give it a little consideration if you can help! > 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.) > > They can use help from all of us! > Sharon, List owner