RootsWeb



RootsWeb LogoRootsWeb is an Ancestry.com community website. It is connect with the Ancestry.com website. The search engine on the front page is split, with half allowing you to search through RootsWeb, and the other half allowing you to search through Ancestry.com. There is a section called: Getting Started which is helpful to people who have not used this website for their genealogy research before.

When I clicked the Getting Started at RootsWeb link, I learned that the primary function of RootsWeb is to connect people together, so they can share their genealogical research with other people, and so each person can help the other people who use this website. A genealogist can submit records that she has transcribed by hand from books, photographs, microfilm, and other documents into this website. You can upload your family tree to the WorldConnect Project through RootsWeb, or add your family surnames to the RootsWeb Surname List.

I learned that there are many ways to connect to other genealogists who use RootsWeb. You can join a mailing list, leave a message on a message board, and add Post-em Notes to the Social Security Death Index, and other databases. What is a Post-Em Note I learned it is the electronic version of a yellow sticky note that can be found in many office supply stores.

To try things out, I entered my father’s first and last name into the Search RootsWeb.com half of the search engine. There were matches found in 5 of the 46 databases on this site, 435 additional hits on the Ancestry.com website, and 83 hits at whatever Long Lost People happens to be. I knew the 8 matches from the Social Security Death Index would not be correct, because my father is still alive. I disregarded the links to states that he doesn’t live in. What was left? Web Site Search and something I could not understand. I seem to have hit the proverbial “brick wall” with this website.

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