Hi, all and Happy Holidays: As your "list owner", I feel compelled to forward to you a bit of the communication that is going around to the listowners this week. For the first time in a long time, Rootweb is in dire straits. This enterprise has been almost totally supported by Dr. Brian Leverich and Karen Isaacson, his wife. It has always been free to all comers and they would like to keep it that way. However, that really may not be possible. I have "nagged" you all from time to time about becoming a rootsweb member. It only costs $12.00 per year and you can get your own mailing list if you like. Better yet, you can become a sponsor for $24.00 and there are quite a few perks. But even if you cannot see your way clear to do that right now, anything you can afford would be appreciated. Even if all of you just sent a buck or two to the address below it would enough to be of help. We don't want to lose this excellent resource, do we? send a check in U.S. dollars to: RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative P.O. Box 6798 Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 or visit here to see if you would like to do more. http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html The letter I received from another mail list this morning..... -------------------------------------------------------------- >>Recent acquisitions and mergers in the computer world have left >>Rootsweb unexpectedly short of funding due to the withdrawl of >>Palladium sponsorship. Palladium was acquired by The Learning >>Company which in turn was purchased by Mattel Inc. I feel there is an effort to corner the market on Genealogy on the Internet, and you will soon have to pay to access the websites that are free, now that Mattel, Inc. owns 85% of the Genealogy software. I would guess they want to become the Microsoft of the genealogy world. Here's a letter written by one of the founders of Rootsweb outlining the current situation: >> >> << My friends - >> >> I generally do not bring you news about RootsWeb, whose servers >> house some 4000 mail lists, including this one, because I know >> you all get the RootsWeb Review about once a week, which pretty >> well covers what is going on within RootsWeb. >> As most of you know, RootsWeb was created by, and is "owned" by >> Dr. Brian Leverich and his wife Karen Isaacson, both superb >> computer people and genealogists. They created RootsWeb and >> they have funded 90% of it out of their own pockets since its >> creation. This means that they have a houseful of computer >> equipment, as well as other equipment in a hub elsewhere, that >> runs all of these lists, as well as web pages and other items >> for the USGenWeb - the effort is huge and growing by leaps >> and bounds. However, their corporate sponsor, Palladium, has >> disappeared into a merger with another company, and that >> funding has evaporated. It seems unclear whether any other >> corporation will step forward to help underwrite these huge costs. >> >> In the message which Brian sent to the listowner list, he makes >> the first mention of danger to the whole RootsWeb concept. He is >> rarely pessimistic, and if he is concerned, then we all need to >> be concerned. He finds it particularly depressing that only a >> small percentage (2%-6%) are helping to support RootsWeb in any >> way, even though there are literally hundreds of thousands of >> people regularly using the mail lists and the other web pages >> and items which RootsWeb hosts. You can see that he has taken out >> a $25,000 loan just to try to keep the equipment growing with the >> needs of RootsWeb. >> >> The bottom line is that if we, as users of these RootsWeb services, >> cannot help with a few dollars(and it does not have to be much at >> all, if we all get involved)in support of this fine group, we are >> in very real danger of losing these mail lists and literally >> hundreds of web pages of genealogical material(including the JP >> Images Page and many, many others)that is today available. Please >> give this some thought, and see if you can find a few dollars that >> you could donate to RootsWeb to keep this effort alive. I have >> long said that Brian and Karen cannot forever continue to incure >> financial hits in the range of ten of thousands of dollars at a >> time, and still be able to keep RootsWeb alive. Take a look at: >> >> www.rootsweb.com >> >> and you can see how to donate if you wish to do so. I urge you to >> consider it. It is a great investment. Let's see if we can make >> it a merrier Christmas for Karen and him and for online genealogists >> everywhere. William L. Boulineau Antigo, WI 54409 Rootsweb Sponsor [email protected]