Do Not Attempt to Adjust That Picture

There is nothing wrong with your computer monitor. Do not attempt to adjust that picture. The Generations Network (parent company of Ancestry.com) is now in control of transmission. 

Okay, I borrowed and tweaked that quote from the opening of that old sci-fi favorite, “The Outer Limits.” You may feel, however, as if you've landed in your own episode of the “Outer Limits” the next time you visit one of your favorite GenWeb sites. 

If you haven't been reading any genealogy blogs or newsletters in the past week, you missed an important bit of news. Ancestry announced that the “Web address for all RootsWeb pages will change from www.rootsweb.com to www.rootsweb.ancestry.com.” You can read the entire announcement here: http://bigfile.rootsweb.com/newsroom/?p=111. 

As you can imagine, there have been a few interesting posts about these changes. Kimberly Powell's “Kimberly's Genealogy Blog” at About.com gives two interesting posts on the subject. The first is “RootsWeb.com Being Transplanted to Ancestry.com” at http://genealogy.about.com/b/2008/03/13/rootswebcom-being-transplanted-to-ancestrycom.htm.

A second post called “USGenWeb - Where Are They Moving?” has some interesting details on what is happening at the various GenWeb sites. Linkpendium and Cyndi's list must be going crazy trying to keep up with the massive rootsweb defections. You can read that post at http://genealogy.about.com/b/2008/03/17/usgenweb-where-are-they-moving.htm. 

Randy Seaver's “Genea-Musings” targeted some interesting statistics for both the Ancestry and Rootsweb sites that you can read about at http://randysmusings.blogspot.com/2008/03/ancestry-and-rootsweb-traffic.html and http://randysmusings.blogspot.com/2008/03/5-year-statistics-for-ancestrycom.html. 

A follow up message appeared on the Rootsweb Newsroom on March 17: 

  - www.rootsweb.com will still bring you to the RootsWeb homepage after the domain change. We will be redirecting all of the old URLs. - We are not changing anything on RootsWeb other than the URL. We will still offer the same features and support. - RootsWeb is now and will remain a free online experience. - Your data will not be taken away from you. We host the mailing lists, message boards, sites etc. but you own the information that you post or upload. 

I remain healthily skeptical of these changes. I hope the follow up message posted at the Rootsweb Newsroom turns out to be true - not only for today, but the foreseeable future. 

Until Next Time - Happy Ancestral Digging! Note: This post first published online, March 26, 2008 at Desktop Genealogist Blog at The News-Messenger Online http://www.thenews-messenger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=BLOGS02

© 26 March 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder