The RootsWeb mailing lists were acquired by Ancestry when they bought RootsWeb, but AFAIK they still remain managed by RootsWeb. So, even though Ancestry has put its stamp on them: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ the old index page still exists, as does the old staff and listadmins: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/index.html It's my understanding that the lists still reside on the RootsWeb servers in California, but that may have changed. Ancestry Trees are simply WorldConnect with Ancestry's interface on the database. I presume if you remove your file from WorldConnect, it will disappear from Ancestry Trees. Has anyone tried it? You are treading onto a touchy subject when you start congratulating Ancestry for the RootsWeb mailing lists and for WorldConnect. RootsWeb was built by volunteers -- who for years donated their labor, money, and data -- to what was promised to be a non-profit organization: The "RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative." For years, the owner of RootsWeb said he was working on incorporating RootsWeb as a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. When he finally did incorporate, he did so as a *for-profit* corporation, a betrayal that many dedicated RootsWeb donors took very hard, then doubly hard when he then turned around and sold RootsWeb to Ancestry. Even though this all happened over a decade ago, it still makes my blood boil, so... I am declaring this subject OFF TOPIC. Do not respond to this message or pursue the topic further. It's past history, but sometimes if you don't know the history, you don't really see the present for what it is. Diana Y-DNA-PROJECTS Listadmin > -----Original Message----- > From: y-dna-projects-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:y-dna-projects- > bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of RT > Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 11:49 AM > To: y-dna-projects@rootsweb.com > Subject: [Norton AntiSpam]Re: [Y-DNA-projects] Y-DNA-PROJECTS Provider comparison -- > was joinauthorization > > "Is there any way to see Ancestry's so called 'public trees' without being a subscriber or > pestering the owner for an invitation?" > No. In this context, 'public' means available to anyone as long as they have an > Ancestry.com subscription. > > Re someone's comment about Ancestry stealing trees from another site, I wonder if that > referred to the fact that trees posted at Rootsweb Worldconnect show up within > Ancestry.com? That's to be expected, it is one of the two prices paid for Worldconnect > hosting one's family tree for free. Ancestry also sponsors hundreds (thousands?) of free > mailing lists like this one, which similarly show up within Ancestry.com. (The other > price paid for a free Worldconnect tree is that ads are displayed on the pages of the tree. > But with FireFox, NoScript, & Adblock Plus, I don't even see the ads.) I do appreciate the > fact that Ancestry.com provides those services gratis. Of course I expect that they view > it as an investment. (It's called Capitalism...) > > For those who WANT their family trees to be hidden from the general public, > Ancestry.com is a great place for hosting a tree; photos etc can be attached to > individuals, and many other features are available. On the other hand, for people who > like me feel that genealogical research should be shared, putting one's tree behind > Ancestry.com's wall makes little sense. Beyond the issue of public visibility, one of the > main problems with having Ancestry.com host your online tree is that once you start, > you tend to be locked in to paying a subscription fee forever -exactly as Ancestry.com > desires. What happens when you stop paying? Moving data maintained there to other > programs seems to often cause problems (apparently Ancestry.com trees as well as their > consumer genealogy program, Family Tree Maker, export gedcoms in non-standard > format), and the majority of users probably do not even know that it can be moved. > > I am a huge fan of the system available to host trees for free at Ancestry's Rootsweb > Worldconnect, at least for those who are OK with displaying the basic info with no frills. > If you have a 23andMe account you can see a long discussion I started about how to post > your tree at Worldconnect, and some of the reasons that keeping a tree behind > Ancestry.com's wall is less constructive: > https://www.23andme.com/you/community/thread/3619/ > > Rootsweb Worldconnect allows you to suppress details of living persons born after any > year you choose. You can decide whether your notes and sources will be visible. (Mine > are not visible, since they contain my sources' personal contact info.) It is EASY to > update. In contrast to ancestry.com trees, Rootsweb Worldconnect trees are indexed by > search engines such as Google. If someone searches for a specific name, there is a good > chance they will find your tree. I've had many relatives (who I didn't know existed) find > my Rootsweb tree via google search & contact me. The presentation allows the viewer to > decide whether to view an individual's details (group sheet view), descendants, > ahnentafel format, etc, or to look for other possible connections in your tree. > > Here's where to start, assuming your data is already maintained within a program that > can export your data in the form of a gedcom file) (-and Ancestry.com trees are able to > do that): > http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ > > Richard Thrift >