What's up with Rootsweb and Ancestry?

For anyone not in the know, the USGenWeb Project is hosted at Rootsweb. A few years back, Ancestry (now The Generations Network) was nice enough to donate all of the server space for the project. This has been the case for years and Ancestry has received pretty much nothing in return.

In the old days, Rootsweb used to ask for private donations and I used to be a donor. I was a volunteer for a few counties in Virginia so I felt obligated to provide some financial support, around $50 per year. When Ancestry stepped in, it was a big sigh of relief because Rootsweb no longer needed money out of our pockets.

The relationship between Rootsweb and Ancestry became more intertwined over the years. Rootsweb became known as “an Ancestry.com community.” Rootsweb became a marketable brand for Ancestry.

A few months ago, Ancestry sprung a surprise on the volunteers at Rootsweb and the USGenWeb Project. Ancestry was going to put a banner at the top of every page hosted on Rootsweb, an advertisement for their company. A large number of Rootsweb volunteers went crazy, furious that Ancestry had the audacity to turn their genealogy project into a profit center. The USGenWeb Project always stated its mission as being “non-commercial and fully committed to free genealogy access for everyone.” These principles seemed to clash...or did they?

I currently volunteer for two counties in Virginia. I have honestly neglected the sites for awhile because I am tired of all the controversy that has been brewing. Volunteers are moving their sites off Ancestry's servers so a lot of the old links do not work anymore. How does that help freely spread genealogy when you cannot find it? This is a huge mess and I am honestly getting tired of being a part of it. I think I am going to probably give up my two sites but I have not decided yet.

Through all of this I have not moved my sites nor would I in the future, if I keep them. The Ancestry banner is quite small, very similar to the Blogger banner you see at the very top of this page. Google owns Blogger. Blogger gives free web space for people to host their blog. It is therefore their right to get at least a small ad out of it. The ads are unobtrusive and most people do not pay any attention to them. I do not see what all the fuss is about.

I am getting a little off track but the point is that the USGenWeb project is at risk of falling apart, simply over a one-half inch banner at the top of every page. The banner says “Hosted at Rootsweb...an Ancestry.com Community.” It does not sell products or blatantly push a subscription service. It is a token gesture to give Ancestry more exposure in a tough market. If you look at Google trends, genealogy searches are falling off more each year. You cannot fault Ancestry for trying to expand their market reach in these trying times.

I would estimate that Ancestry spends tens of thousands of dollars per year to pay for all of the server space and bandwidth that Rootsweb has enjoyed for years. Instead of understanding that someone has to pay for all that space, people get all upset and scream that genealogy should be free for everyone. The last time I checked, it still was free. Ancestry is not directly selling anything with the banner and no subscription is required. I doubt they even get a large amount of traffic off the banners. People will become blind to them in a short mount of time. I wish some of the volunteers at the USGenWeb Project would stop looking a gift horse in the mouth and be happy that they have the support of a large, financial backer.

In closing, let me say that I appreciate the volunteers at Rootsweb and the USGenWeb Project. I also realize that lots of volunteers are fine with Ancestry's banners and that they are grateful for the support. The problem is that they, like myself, are passive about the conversion and are not raising a lot of eyebrows.

The controversy just does not make sense to me. It would be like my softball team going out and finding a sponsor to buy our uniforms and telling them that we will not print their name on our shirts. That is absurd. You always give credit to your sponsors. Why would that courtesy not apply to genealogy and Ancestry's hosting of Rootsweb? The idea behind sponsorship is exposure and that is what Ancestry wants and rightful deserves.

Free Genealogy is Not Always Worth It

It seems to me that some people get offended at the thought of paying for genealogy. Why is it that a researcher should not be able to make a living while helping you out at the same time? As far as I can see, genealogists should not be treated different than any other professional in respect to their charges. This is America, a free economy, and prices are determined by supply and demand. With genealogy being one of the top hobbies in the country, the demand is higher than ever. If you collected stamps, you would not expect the post office to give them to you for free. Why should you expect genealogists to give away their services?

If people could not make a living with genealogy, records would be so scarce that few people would have access to them. The government's WPA (Works Progress Administration) hired people back in the 1930s to copy and preserve historic documents, they became paid genealogists in effect. Think about on-line resources, ancestry.com, genealogy.com, they would be out of the game if they did not charge for their services. The odds of you having access to complete indexes for all of the US census records would be nil without their efforts. The Social Security Death Index would not be as accessible to most people if profit-based companies did not propagate it as they did a few years ago. I think some of you are being too hard, looking a gift horse in the mouth.

A lot of people think that all genealogy resources should be shared, like the USGenWeb Project. Well guess what, Rootsweb was taken over basically by Ancestry a few years back. Its funding comes from a profit company! Nothing is free. Everything costs someone money. If no one paid for genealogy, no one would take the time to walk cemeteries and transcribe tombstones or sift through thousands of old marriage bonds to write a book. I think we need to support people who dedicate their lives, 9 to 5 each day, to make genealogy resources more accessible for us all.

Pretend that you live in California and your ancestors came across the country from Virginia. How much time and money would you spend going to each courthouse in each place that they lived, all the way back to Virginia? You would spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in that pursuit. On the other hand, imagine paying $19.95 for a book of marriage records from a specific county or paying $250 to have a research track down a generation or two. There is no comparison in cost, you save time and money with the professional.

We should praise professional, for-profit researchers and give them a break. Their work is more thorough and more accurate than any free resource you will ever find. Any Tom, Dick or Harry and can make up anything, put it on-line and call it fact. As far as I am concerned, the old adage is true, you get what you pay for.

Is the USGenWeb going down a bit?

I have been looking around at some of the USGenWeb sites lately and I have to say that it seems they are going down a bit. I remember a time when there was a waiting list to become a county volunteer, especially in major genealogical states like Virginia. Now it seems that most states have at least one county up for adoption. Is it just me or did the GenWeb lose some of its steam?

Perhaps the GenWeb is faltering because the content has gotten stale. Their archives project never impressed me much due to lack of content. Some of their other, smaller projects did not appeal to me or many other members of the public. It is not all the USGenWeb's fault though. If the public does not submit information, the site will not continue to grow.

It seems to me that people love to find information; they just do not want to share their information. Maybe they are stingy and do not want to give their work away for free. Maybe they feel others will take their work out of context or claim it as their own. Perhaps people do not want to take the time to submit data, to make transcripts. I personally do not submit much anymore because life has become quite hectic as I have started a family and a career. Everyone has their reasons not share data but we need to start giving more if we want free, Internet genealogy to exist in ten years.

I have made many great connections through the Internet, the USGenWeb and other such sites. I have met cousins that had old family photos I never dream existed. There is so much value to the Internet that we need to support projects like the GenWeb. If everyone submitted one document or one photo, the collection would grow tremendously. I think it is time that everyone puts in a little extra effort - write an article, answer a survey, post to a blog or message board. Tell you friends about your favorite genealogy sites, add them to you link pages. Do what you can to help the Internet genealogy community stay fresh, stay strong and continue to grow. Do not let our hobby be a fad that simply slips away into obscurity.