Jillaine's Guide to Rootsweb

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jillaine/RootsWebOverview.html
Last updated: 2 August 2002 (all links checked) - jss

General Help | Searching RootsWeb | Surname Resources | Immigration Resources | Geographic Resources |
Source Documents | RootsWeb Discussions (Mailing Lists) (Message Boards) | Web Site Hosting |
Other Areas

RootsWeb (sites.rootsweb.com) is the greatest and probably oldest genealogy resource on the Internet. While it was purchased by Ancestry.com, RootsWeb retains a very grassroots feel; the enormous international community of users makes up the friendliest, most helpful online community I've experienced since being online from 1984.

Having said all that, I also find the RootsWeb Web site a challenge to navigate. There are SO many resources that they are often difficult to find. And sometimes after using something particularly useful, I have trouble finding it when I return to the site later. So I put together this "index" of areas within RootsWeb to help ME keep track of where things are at RootsWeb. As long as I made it for myself, I figured, well, let's make it available to anyone else who wants to use it. Enjoy. - Jillaine Smith, Washington DC

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RootsWeb (sites.rootsweb.com) provides a place for the free exchange of information on family research, and sponsors the biggest volunteer genealogy projects on the Web. It is home to the casual and the serious genealogist alike. It's a vast store of both information and opportunities to connect with other genealogists and distant relatives as well. As of April 2000, it hosts more than 13,500 independently authored Web sites, 18,500 electronic mailing lists, 839,000 RootsWeb Surname List entries.

General Help

• Interactive how-to guides (sites.rootsweb.com/~rwguide) are great for the person new to genealogy, generally, and to using the Internet and RootsWeb for genealogy more specifically. RootsWeb HelpDesk (helpdesk.rootsweb.com) message board is the place to ask questions about how to use RootsWeb.
• RootsWeb publishes an e-newsletter distributed via email, not print. Subscribership as of April 2000 was over 600,000 worldwide.
  • Subscribe by sending email to [email protected]; to unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]. Search or Browse back issues of RootsWeb Review (e-zine.rootsweb.com)
    or
    Search back issues of the RootsWeb Review newsletter (search-rwr.rootsweb.com/rwr)
  • Send a letter to the RootsWeb Review Editor (no attachments or html): [email protected]
  Rootsweb used to publish a second newsletter called Missing Links, which included great stories about how people found ancestors or relations. They appear to have stopped this newsletter, but you can search back issues of the Missing Links newsletter (search-rwr.rootsweb.com/ml).
• Password Central (passwordcentral.rootsweb.com/) the place to request a list of all the things you're involved with at Rootsweb (which mailing lists you're subscribed to, which message boards you administer, etc.), and also to request your password for each of these.

Searching RootsWeb

• RootsWeb Search Engines (searches.rootsweb.com) guides you through all major search engines on RootsWeb. GenSeeker (seeker.rootsweb.com/search.html) allows you to search the contents of all the registered WWW documents at RootsWeb.
• RootsLink (resources.rootsweb.com/~rootslink/search.html) searches 11,700+ links to genealogy-related sites on the Web. See also "Surname Resources" below about searching RootsWeb for particular surnames.
• Search back issues of the Missing Links newsletter (search-rwr.rootsweb.com/ml)
• Search back issues of the RootsWeb Review newsletter (search-rwr.rootsweb.com/rwr)
• Search Search Rootsweb's Mailing Lists.
• Search RootsWeb's list of mailing lists (lists.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/findlist.pl) to find surnames that are similar to the name you enter.
• Search the archives of RootsWeb mailing lists (searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl)
• Search the contents of all of the Message Boards (boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/script/main/rw)
• Search the WorldConnect Pages (worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi)

Surname Resources

• Surname Helper (surhelp.rootsweb.com) is a surname engine for queries and surname registrations posted on various genealogy sites. See also surhelp.rootsweb.com/srchall.html.
• Single Lineage Researchers (sites.rootsweb.com/~lineage) allows you to register a single surname for which you are searching the descendants.
• Surname List (resources.rootsweb.com/surnames) helps you find information about a selected surname, no matter where on RootsWeb it might be located (on web sites, mailing lists, surname database, etc.)
• RootsWeb's Surname database is a place where you can post the surnames you're researching and look up other people who are researching the same names.
• Social Security Death Index (SSDI) (ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com). If your ancestor had a Social Security benefit paid as the result of his/her death, then he/she will be included in the SSDI. Use this service to find the SS# of your ancestor, and to request his/her original SS application. That application often contains information that will be helpful in your research.
• WorldConnect (worldconnect.rootsweb.com) is an incredible RootsWeb project that seeks to collect online as many family trees as possible. These are user-contributed family trees in GEDCOM format (although when you look at them online, they're easy to read). As of April 2000, RootsWeb had 27 million names submitted by 10,000 researchers. This is a great way to share your research with others, and to find others researching the same surnames. RootsWeb has developed an excellent and easy way to upload your family tree information without compromising the privacy of living individuals. You get to control how much information is seen and shared. And RootsWeb does not copy or sell the data you put online (unlike the makers of my genealogy software, who charge about $70 per CD of user-contributed family trees). Another advantage of having your GEDCOM on RootsWeb-it's a form of back up. Should anything go wrong on your home computer, you've got a backup of your family tree on RootsWeb. Also, you can access it away from your computer. Handy if you're visiting Aunt Ruth and want to show off how much information you've collected about the family!
  • Search the WorldConnect Pages (worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi)
  • WorldConnect Tips (worldconnect.rootsweb.com/tips)
  • WorldConnect Suggestion Board and Help (boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.rw.worldconnect) New URL!

  CAVEAT: Any user-contributed family tree information-whether provided free on RootsWeb, or purchased through a company-is only as good as the researcher who compiled it. Therefore, the quality of what you find in WorldConnect or any other collection of family tree information WILL vary wildly. I'll use myself as an example: I am relatively new to genealogy (started doing this in late 1998). And I started compiling the information I had before I knew a lot about how to cite where I got the information from. So I have a lot of information in my Family Tree GEDCOM that is undocumented-i.e., it comes from old family notes, conversations, etc. Or it may come from documents that I have, but that I haven't referenced completely. In genealogy terms, this means that any data I have in this shape is UNCONFIRMED. It may be 100% accurate, but it also may be completely false. For example, our family had a strong legend that our emigrating ancestors married on the boat on the way over. This story has been passed down through the generations and is so prevalent that it was taken for fact. And so it appears in all of our family records as "fact." But as I was researching the origins of this particular couple, I happened to mention (on a RootsWeb mailing list to which I was subscribed) that this couple had been married on the boat on the way over. I was kindly but firmly informed by a number of more experienced genealogists that in the 19^th century, ships carrying immigrants did not marry people on board. It simply didn't happen. And, indeed, we ultimately found this couple's marriage record in a church on the U.S. side of the Atlantic. My point being that you should look very carefully at how the information being shared is or is not documented. AND you should also be including source information on your own research.

Immigration Resources

• Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (istg.rootsweb.com)
• ISTG Updates (istg.rootsweb.com/updates.html). Very helpful because ISTG is adding new transcripts all the time.

Geographic (Locality) Resources

• US GenWeb (www.usgenweb.org) is a fully volunteer project committed to creating genealogical Web sites for every county in the U.S. US GenWeb is part of a global effort called WorldGenWeb (worldgenweb.org) (distinct from RootsWeb, but I think RootsWeb is a member of or participant in this project).
• Location Mailing Lists finder (searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/Genea/rll) searches just those RootsWeb mailing lists focused on geographical areas.
• RootsWeb's Mailing lists focused on Germany (lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/) New URL!

Source Documents

By this, I mean, where on RootsWeb can you find copies or transcriptions of real documents.

• The US GenWeb Archives (sites.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/newsletter) offer actual transcriptions of public domain records. You will find copies of census records, marriage bonds, wills, and other public documents. USGW-ARCHIVES-ANNOUNCE-L is a read-only mailing list for weekly announcements of new updates and submissions to the USGenWeb Archives. To subscribe, send e-mail that says only SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message to this address: [email protected]
• Tombstone Project (sites.rootsweb.com/~cemetery) is a mostly volunteer effort to document tombstones from cemeteries around the world.

RootsWeb Discussions

RootsWeb offers two different formats for engaging in online discussions: Mailing lists and Message boards. In addition, message boards and mailing lists tend to focus on either a particular surname or on a geographical region (a particular county in the United States, or a region in Germany, for example).

Mailing Lists
To participate in a particular mailing list, you must subscribe (free of charge) to each of the lists you are interested in. Messages posted to the list are then emailed directly to your email address. Normally, messages posted to a mailing list come to your mailbox one at a time. If the mailing list you're subscribed to is very active (many messages a day), you may wish to subscribe to the DIGEST version of the mailing list, which compiles multiple individual messages together and sends them out as a "package." The single message you receive in your mailbox is then a compilation of several messages.

• Review all email discussion lists available at RootsWeb (lists.rootsweb.com)
• Search the directory of lists (lists.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/findlist.pl) to find one of interest to you (beta).
• Most of the mailing lists are archived (archiver.rootsweb.com). See which mailing lists are archived (archiver.rootsweb.com)
• Mailing lists in need of adoption (resources.rootsweb.com/adopt). Many lists need "owners" - people to adopt them and be the contact person for them.
• RootsWebLists Linked with UseNet Newsgroups (lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Newsgroup_Gateways/). UseNet is an Internet-wide (and pre-Web) bulletin board system.

Message Boards
Message boards are located on the Web site, and are NOT delivered by email (unless they are "gatewayed" to a mailing list). RootsWeb used to call these GenConnect Message Boards. In mid-2001, they switched to a new message board system, now hosted on ancestry.com. The advantage of a message board is that you don't clutter your email box with messages; the disadvantages include that you must remember to check the message board regularly.

• The main entry point for RootsWeb Message boards (boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=main&r=rw) Rootsweb no longer appears to have the equivalent of a list of boards that need adopting, but you can tell if a message board does need adopting if when visiting a particular message board you see "Become an Administrator". If you don't see that, you'll see instead "Links and Announcements" which should provide you the name and email address of the current administrator of that particular board.
• Search the contents of all of the GenConnect boards (cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi?search)

Web Site Hosting

RootsWeb provides FREE Web space.

• Set up a free account (accounts.rootsweb.com)
• Find help for setting up your Web site (boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.rw.freep) New URL!
• Publicize your Web site via RootsLink (resources.rootsweb.com/~rootslink/addlink.html) New URL!

Other Areas of RootsWeb

• RootsWeb Users Share Stories: (resources.rootsweb.com/~press)