uploading a tree: ancestry vs. rootsweb

[Jimbo S]

Is there a difference?

Is rootsweb free while ancestry can only be viewed by paying members?

Which method would get viewed by the most researchers?

Thanks in advance.

Jimbo

[GentryDixon]

1. I have a subscription to Ancestry,

but also use Rootsweb. There are many trees in Rootsweb not available in Ancestry.

Rootsweb is affiliated with Ancestry, but it is not exclusive to members like Ancestry is. The only problem is there are no source documents like census reports in Rootsweb. It is a good tool for double checking family members and seeing what others have found in their research. Another source is Genealogy: http://www.genforum.genealogy.com/. It has the families listed by surname and queries associated with the families. I have found and corresponded with new found relatives via this site.

Another source is www.usgenweb.org. It is broken down by states and has info not necessarily found on Ancestry.

Good luck, Jimbo.

[shraby]

2. rootsweb

I belonged when it was just "rootsweb" building the site for Manitowoc county Wisconsin way back in 1995. It became usgenweb.org a couple of years after when some of the members organized it for better coordination.
Then around 2000, Ancestry.com began hosting the rootsweb/usgenweb sites and that's when I left and went independent because with a simple change of passwords, Ancestry could have incorporated all the county coordinators for rootsweb/usgenweb right into their files and could then charge and all the county coordinators (the ones who do the actual work on usgenweb county sites) would lose all their work.
As yet, the sites still belong to usgenweb and some but I don't know how many have been moved to a new server..I believe the state coordinator for Wisconsin has moved all of the Wisconsin county sites. Don't know about the other states.
Ancestry got in trouble with the LDS people for transcribing info from the LDS archives then proceeding to put it on Ancestry and charge for it. They got taken to court and the upshot is the Family Research Centers around the country for LDS can give access to Ancestry.com for free. I don't know how long this will last because I never saw the court findings, just that it's free at the Family Research Centers.

[proudohioan]

3. Have you seen the updated LDS Family Search website?

There is a pilot record program that is really great! I actually viewed a microfiche copy of my great-grandparents death certificates on that site.

[shraby]

4. I haven't been there lately, I've been flat out

adding information to my Manitowoc county site..just got 3 old photos in the email to add, as well as probably 50 obituaries to put with the tombstone transcriptions of people they are about.
I have a couple of people sending me obituaries, maybe one of them will see what they can find there.

[proudohioan]

5. The folks researching ancestors in Manitowoc county.....

will be truly grateful for you efforts.

Thank you for putting in all of that hard work!

T.

[shraby]

6. I have around 3 gigs of info there..that includes tombstone

photos for a lot of the cemeteries. Trying to capture them in time for researchers.