RootsWeb - the Internet's oldest (since 1993) and largest FREE genealogical community. This was the feature of our TCGS Beginners' Class Wednesday night. Until 2017, its genealogical resources included searchable databases, free web space for public use, mailing lists, message boards, educational web pages, genealogical tools, and much more. In 2000, Ancestry bought RootsWeb with the understanding it would remain free forever. In 2017, however, there was a major security breach and Ancestry was forced to take down the site. Fortunately for us, Ancestry is working to get most of the data back up. There are many features back up and working but the mailing list archives are still unavailable. Today's RootsWeb can be found at https://www.rootsweb.com/. 

One of the major groups of web pages hosted by RootsWeb was the USGenWeb site. These are free pages coordinated by volunteers for most of the states and counties in the United States. Not all pages have been restored, but most are up while some are dependent on what has been stored in the Internet Archives Wayback Machine. The RootsWeb Blog has an excellent explanation of what is available.

Ancestry.com's Wiki has been moved to the RootsWeb site and renamed the  Rootsweb Wiki  This is where The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy and Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources can be found and used for free!

To visit and use some of the features on yesterday's RootsWeb.com, click here.