In mid-June 2001, the message boards at RootsWeb.com --which the Centre County GenWeb site had endorsed for nearly two years-- were completely revamped by a consortium of RootsWeb and Ancestry.com, in the name of creating an "improved" system that they had hoped browsers would like.

Unfortunately, the system is so complicated and its functionality so erratic, that county GenWeb coordinators throughout the U.S. have been getting hate e-mail for allowing this to go on with the appearance that many persons' former postings were thought to be literally lost. Furthermore, in order to post a message, the "new" RootsWeb.com and Ancestry.com board is requiring the registration of a name and a password. They claim this is so if anyone ever changes an email address, they can all be changed universally. That is to say an email address on a message in Centre County, Pa., posted 18 months ago, can be changed at the same time as one also posted with a message from South Carolina three months ago. However, there are other realists out there who believe that Ancestry.com is trying to register posters because it has an interest in building up an email list of marketing targets for its products. Whatever the reason, I personally do not feel that posters should feel restricted into providing a password (and please NEVER give out the one you use to log into your internet service provider).

The "new" board is actually a merger of seven older ones (that is, the former Bible records, biographies, deeds, obituaries, pension files, queries and wills boards) all compounded into one board arranged chronologically with the most recent posting first. No one seems to be clear as to why the powers that be felt a need to merge all of these boards into one, but a singular result is that it has doubly angered folks who found the previous boards helpful in their searches. First, people can no longer find postings where they had originally made them*, and secondly, Ancestry.com has adopted a java-enabled programming language that cannot be read on all computers, particularly on the less powerful models. Because queries are generally typescript-only, we have been unable to figure out why a more sophisticated language was so important. An inquiry of folks at Ancestry.com brought back the retort that many browsers needed to upgrade their computers, and they (meaning Ancestry.com) aren't going to please everybody. It is precisely that last attitude which we find damning. It has seemed that RootsWeb.com bent over backwards at being accommodating to family history searchers while Ancestry.com has put on the appearance of only wishing to please its bottom line, however naively defined.

We are personally sorry for the mess, but the truth of the matter is that Ancestry.com and RootsWeb.com are to blame for this. My fellow county coordinators around the United States are terribly angry about the mess and our collective e-mailboxes are being overwhelmed leaving us with little time to do simple maintenance of the other things on our GenWeb sites.

We had hoped the situation would clear up, but it only seems to get worse with the passage of time. Thus, we have decided for the Centre County GenWeb site to adopt a new suite of bulletin boards at Pa-roots.com. While there is a banner advertisement on the boards, that does not mean we endorse any product sold. Pa-roots.com is making it possible to pay its bills while providing these boards freely to us and without restrictions to browsers. You may go to them and feel free to post without registering some password. They can be found at:

If you wish to use the new merged board at RootsWeb.com and Ancestry.com, we are keeping a link because our loyal browsers have used their boards in the past and they are an important archive... even if now cumbersome to use. It can be found at:

Just as with Pa-roots.com, we also do NOT endorse any products at Ancestry.com, and in fact, are entertaining the possibility of joining (and encouraging our browsers to join) a planned boycot of all Ancestry.com products if things don't improve.

*After much agitation from county GenWeb coordinators, and the browsing public, the folks at RootsWeb.com and Ancestry.com have made an effort to recover the listings originally posted to the various GenConnect specialty message boards. To access these recovered lists, go to that Centre County only merged Board, then look in the middle of the page for an instruction that says, "View Message Type," and use the pull-down menu until you reach one for "Bible" or "Biography" or "Deed" or "Obituary" or "Pension" or "Will."

Again, we are sorry about the mess, but appreciate your patience. If you have a question or comment, feel free to write me.