PACK-L Archives

From: Ellen Pack <>
Subject: Good Old Rootsweb!
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1999 07:30:10 -0500

Hi -

I don't usually do this, and this is a one time post but I felt that you as
researchers should be aware of things pertaining to online research.

If anyone is offended I apologize now. This is for information only!

As most of you know, many of the USGenWeb county pages, mailing lists, all
of the Archives, many genealogical and historical societies, Civil War
sites, etc., are hosted and the space donated by Rootsweb for free
genealogical research on the Internet. Brian and Karen Leverich have spent
a lot of their own money and invested thousands of hours providing servers
and space to the USGenWeb Project for free. He supports our efforts to
make as much information as possible available to researchers for free. He
is constantly implementing new servers, new T-2 lines, modem banks, etc.,
to keep up with the ever-increasing demand. He has even had to employ a
staff to help out. The monthly operating costs are extrordinarily high.

Rootsweb has tried to recruit corporate sponsorship to help defray the
costs, but most companies want to charge for the info, and sell CD's, which
is something that Brian will never tolerate, as he is committed to free
online research. So far only Palladium, makers of Ultimate Family Tree has
cooperated, but now that they have been bought by the Learning Company,
that too may be lost.

As researchers, we think nothing of sending $20-$30 or more to professional
researchers, libaries, courthouses, microfilm libaries, or bookstores
trying to get information for our research. And that's an option we may
never totally get away from, but if we send $25 a year to support Rootsweb
not only do we get tons of information piped into our homes, we get a
mailing list and county and state pages to help us with our research. We
can even get space to put personal genealogy web pages, start a surname
list (if surname is available) and surname message boards (if surname is
available), and continue to help Rootsweb grow and make available all of
the marvelous information.

You can see more at their page http://www.rootsweb.com

These are not donations! You get something in return. The contribution
that will allow you 1 list and 1 board is $12 a year! The higher levels
add more boards and generous webspace, and that webspace is sans all the
irritating floating banners and watermarks some "free" servers require.

There's even a installment plan for larger amounts. And of course you're
not obliged to maintain a mailing list, or start a web site. But the
structure is such that you do get something for yourself, if interested,
plus helping to insure that all that wonderful information will continue to
be made available at no charge.

I have two counties that have been on Rootsweb for over two and a half
years. Hopefully, the material has helped hundreds of researchers. All
the space was donated by Rootsweb, yet Brian never once even asked that I
put a Rootsweb logo on the pages. I did that on my own. :-> No one ever
paid one cent to log on and scan the files so generously donated by
hard-working volunteers. I cannot imagine what it would cost to travel to
Natchez or to West Virginia to personally obtain the information - assuming
I could even find it. :-> And yet here it is at our fingertips, in the
comfort of our homes, a couple of keystrokes away.

If you feel inclined, please consider becoming a
Rootsweb sponsor. We would all be much poorer were we to lose this
valuable resource and have to revert to Ancestry's and FTM sites to try and
find info that could be on Rootsweb for Free.

For less than one years membership to Ancestry you can get 4 lists, 4
boards and 25mb of web space. Ancestry is around $59.40 and Rootsweb
Sponsor Plus is $50. FTM seems to sell a lot of "teaser" indexes -
Rootsweb helps make available ALL of the information, no purchase
necessary, no logon, no password, no nothing.

Thanks for reading this, and again I apologize if I have offended anyone.

Ellen
List Moderator

This thread:

• Good Old Rootsweb! by Ellen Pack <>