www.rootsweb.com had the following press release of their sale to www.ancestry.com,aka MyFamily.com. To smooth the waters, a free,14 day membership in www.ancestry.com's great on-line genealogy library is offered. I,Herm Fagley, use www.ancestry.com's library early every day. Like much of the Internet,it works better then than prime time. Also, let me hint that while www.ancestry.com's main search engine states clearly '1st name" and 'surname" for the blanks, you can enter other words there like 'loch" 'ness" or Batavia Ohio or July 1776. Enjoy. I have no tie to www.ancestry.com but a member. No ties to www.rootsweb.com or MyFamily.com than a user of their free services. RootsWeb Merges with Ancestry.com GOOD NEWS: You, our users, have helped create at 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. 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 to those of you who have helped make RootsWeb such a vibrant Internet community, Ancestry.com is making the following offer: You are invited to visit Ancestry.com today and sign up for a FREE 14-day trial 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 trial now: http://ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrialx.asp?sourcecode=G11BA You must activate your FREE trial by July 5, 2000. MORE GOOD NEWS: 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 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. 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 Isaacson RootsWeb Co-Founder 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 Copyright © 2000. RootsWeb.com, Inc. All rights reserved. Comments or suggestions for this page. Please include the URL (address) of this page when writing. Ancestry.com - Roots WebMember Login | Guest Registry | MyFamily.com Today @ Ancestry | Thinking of Joining? | Top Things to Do | Partner with Us Home > Acquisition of RootsWeb.comJune 22, 2000 MyFamily.com, Inc. Acquires Number Two Genealogy Site, RootsWeb.com MyFamily.com, Inc. Increases Portfolio of Sites to Extend Its Position as the Number One Online Source for Families and Family History Research San Francisco, CA – June 21, 2000 – MyFamily.com, Inc., the leading online family network, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire RootsWeb.com, the oldest and largest free community genealogy site. RootsWeb.com, a San Francisco, California company, is among the most popular genealogy sites on the Internet. With more than 149 million page views in the month of May 2000, RootsWeb.com was second among genealogy Web sites only to Ancestry.com's over 187 million page views, according to Nielsen NetRatings combined home and work statistics. With the acquisition MyFamily.com, Inc. will add RootsWeb.com to its portfolio of Web sites, which includes MyFamily.com, FamilyHistory.com, as well as Ancestry.com, collectively recognized as the premier Internet destination for families. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Following the acquisition, the RootsWeb.com site will continue to be free to all users and will maintain its own unique Web site address, www.RootsWeb.com. The acquisition by MyFamily.com, Inc. will provide the RootsWeb.com site the financial backing to expand its focus on preserving, sharing, and exchanging family history research. As part of the MyFamily.com network of sites, the RootsWeb.com site will expand with additional technology tools, increased family research content and a greater range of genealogical resources. With genealogy as one of the most popular hobbies online, the addition of RootsWeb.com extends MyFamily.com's offerings in genealogy research and further enhances its leading position in genealogy research and family services on the Internet. This new combination creates a central destination for the genealogy community online, offering something for every family historian. This move comes at a time when a recent Pew Internet and American Life Study reported that 54 million people belong to a family in which someone used the Internet to research their family history or genealogy. "This is truly a winning combination for both organizations and for the millions of users who make up our audiences," said Greg Ballard, CEO of MyFamily.com. "We believe that we are in an excellent position to expand our offering to consumers through a number of acquisitions like this one. There is no question that consumers are using the Internet to connect to their families, and we plan to put in place an aggressive program that will enable us to have the most complete network for families online." Strategically, the acquisition of RootsWeb.com will provide MyFamily.com with an increase in advertising real estate and an expanded audience reach, and will provide increased transaction and commerce opportunities. In addition, it will increase exposure to Ancestry.com's free and premium subscription offerings. Currently more than 600 million records and 2,500 databases are online at Ancestry.com, with over half of the data freely accessible to all Web users. MyFamily.com, Inc. generates revenues from diversified streams, including advertising/sponsorships, subscriptions and commerce among its network of sites. "RootsWeb.com fits well with the MyFamily.com vision of creating the largest and most active online resource for families and family history research," said Dr. Brian Leverich, founder of RootsWeb.com. "This agreement will expand both the number of RootsWeb.com users and content contributors. At the same time, we have ensured that RootsWeb.com content, services, mailing lists and Web pages will remain free, while allowing the site to provide more functionality and resources to a larger audience as a result of our being part of the MyFamily.com network." As part of its ongoing commitment to the genealogical community, MyFamily.com, Inc. will continue to support volunteer, non-profit organizations such as The USGenWeb Project (www.USGenWeb.org), Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (ISTG.rootsweb.com), The Free Births, Marriages, and Deaths Project (FreeBMD.rootsweb.com), and other groups that provide free genealogical content. RootsWeb.com is a valuable source for genealogy, with interactive guides and numerous tools for tracing one's ancestry; it hosts more than 17,000 independently authored Web sites and approximately 19,000 mailing lists and 153,000 message boards. About MyFamily.com, Inc. MyFamily.com, Inc. produces the leading online family network of Web sites. The network includes MyFamily.com, Ancestry.com, and FamilyHistory.com and is consistently ranked among the top properties on the Internet in terms of page views. MyFamily.com enables families to connect and strengthen the family bond through free, private Web sites. Ancestry.com enables visitors to discover their roots by searching more than 600 million names. FamilyHistory.com hosts more than 100,000 free surname message boards where enthusiasts can share research information. Privately held, MyFamily.com, Inc. has offices in San Francisco, New York City and Provo, Utah. Investors in MyFamily.com, Inc. include CMGI @Ventures (Nasdaq: CMGI), Eastman Kodak, America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), Compaq Computer Corporation, Tango, Intel Capital, Europ@web, Pivotal Asset Management LLC and Amerindo Investment Advisors, Inc. For more information, visit http://www.myfamilyinc.com/pressroom. 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