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At rootsweb, search your family history for free!

First things first, rootsweb is a free online genealogy community that makes to good use of available forums on the internet as well as mailing lists in order to help various people find and research on the history of their family.

When was rootsweb founded?

Rootsweb was created way back in the year 1993 thanks to Karen Isaacson and Dr Brian Leverich. Originally, their creation was the Roots List Surname. From that humble start, myfamily.com acquired rootsweb in the year 2000 and it grew quickly to what it is now.

What really is rootsweb for?

The basic function of rootsweb is to help people connect so that all of them could help one another in the sharing of genealogical research.
Majority of the resources available on rootsweb are primarily designed to facilitate the said connections.

How does one start using rootsweb?

This is the first questions most beginning users of rootsweb ask. The following are some of the ways and means you could do in order to contribute to rootsweb as your personal research continues.

Roostweb could help you share your own research
Rootsweb basically enables you to submit any records that you have been able to transcribe in their database that is contributed by users.

Believe it or not, only a minor fraction of information that is related to genealogy is found in the internet. Most data could be found in books, photographs, handwritten documents, microfiche, microfilm, churches, government archives, among others.

Other info – usually the best ones – are found in filing cabinets, attics, as well as bookshelves in countless houses of genealogists all over the world.

Thanks to roostweb, uploading one’s family tree to the project WorldConnect – a family tree database submitted by various researchers of rootsweb.com.

Currently, there are almost four hundred thousand names of ancestors that could be found at rootsweb. Once you post your very own family tree, similar-minded researchers whose ancestry you may have something in common with could find you, and vice versa.

Surnames could also be posted in rootsweb via the Surname Rootsweb List. This is a registry that contains more than a million surnames as submitted by almost three hundred thousand genealogists online.

Along with every surname is the location, date, info as to how it is one could contact the particular person who sent the specific surname.
This tool is what most genealogists online utilize to connect with each other as well as share info.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Still, the best way to make good progress in one’s research of their genealogy is through constant communication with those who is a lot experienced in terms of genealogical searches.

One way is via joining a mailing list since all messages sent is immediately sent to all the subscribers, this is a good way to establish connection with a lot of people with similar likes via one click.

Keep in mind that if you do not find a particular mailing list you are interested in, it is not the end of the world. You could easily start your own mailing list.

Post a note on the message board. This is actually an online version of the more traditional bulletin board. Believe it or not, there are more than a hundred thousand message boards found at rootsweb.

When you post a message, you automatically create your record in which other genealogical researchers could find you. Again, you could easily start your own message board if you do not see a message board you may be interested in.

All in all, rootsweb helps you search your family history roots for free and have great fun in the process.

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